Sign here for ANBU
by Zabzab
Summary: When a mere boy can outprank and outrun an entire village of shinobi, it speaks volume about his talent, no matter what his detractors would say. Dragon, ANBU commander of Konohagakure no Sato, understands that well and decides ANBU is the place for Naruto. AU-Ish, ANBU!Naruto.
1. Chapter 1 Graduation

**A/N: I own nothing, not even the cover. This story is AU-ish, so please don't break my balls. It's rated M being because I'm paranoid.**

"Time?" A distorted, albeit distinctly gruff voice, belonging to a shadow covered individual, asked another similarly garbed person.

"Three hours." The answer was nothing more than a quip, the voice muffled and distorted pretty much the same way the first was.

"Numbers?" As if in a contest to show who was the less loquacious, the first individual asked a single word question again.

"Five squads. Seventeen casualties. He allowed the chase to end." Nonplussed, the other shadow gave its report to its officer.

Silence wrapped the little room the two people were in. Part surprise, part uncomfortable, and full embarrassment at the results. The first shadow, seated behind a desk, laced its fingers under its masked visage, resting its chin on their hands.

"He is wasted."

The other shadow, standing, shrugged under its cloak as if signifying it was not their call to agree or not.

"Permission to talk freely."

The standing shadow started minutely. It took a minute to collect itself and its thoughts, humming lightly under its mask. He had been the prime observer of the target for a long while and was intent on giving the commander a clear picture. There was no need to point the good, the report was telling. It did not mean the bad was not present.

"He is undisciplined."

If they did not know the commander never ever snorted, the shadow would have sworn the seated officer just had.

"He is loud and brash."

The commander shrugged and waved a hand, inviting the soldier to continue. The first two points were of no consequence. They had all lacked discipline at first and young boys tended to be loud and brash anyway. The first could be punched in and the second could be punched out. There was nothing a good thrashing could not achieve.

"He wears orange."

The commander stilled. That was a good point. An excellent point even, one that further proved the boy's sheer talent and ingenuity. One did not escape twenty chunin level ninja for three hours and cause thirteen virtual casualties while wearing bright, neon orange by being a dunce. The commander smiled behind its mask.

"Exactly."

* * *

Naruto Uzumaki, a short, blue-eyed, blond boy who would be unremarkable if it weren't for the whisker-like marks on his cheeks and his orange garment, was known throughout Konohagakure, the Village Hidden in the Leaves, by many names. For the greater part of the scarce non-shinobi population, he was _that_ boy. It was often sworn like an expletive, some people even signed themselves after saying it, or whispered with extreme distaste. For the smaller part left, it was as if he were not even there. The only two people Naruto knew who said his name, his real name, with a touch of affection were the old cook of the ramen stand and his daughter: Teuchi and Ayame Ichiraku.

For the shinobi inhabitants, who were making up most of Konoha's population, they either treated him like they would a primed high yield explosive tag, with a mix of fear, caution and anger or conscientiously ignored him. They did not really give him a name but it was not much better. There was only one person who looked at him and smiled and even sometimes hugged him, proving that he was indeed not a primed high yield explosive tag. But this person was the Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, leader of Konohagakure, and as such, the kindly old man rarely had time for Naruto.

As for the children his age, or at least those he frequented because of school, whether they were from shinobi clans or from a civilian ascent, they called him dead-last and absolutely refused to hang out with him. It hurt. First, because as much as it was technically true he was the dead-last of his class, it was certainly not for a lack of trying. But while every other student were given help when they requested it, Naruto was not. The teachers, all chunin in their own right, were like all the ninja in the village: they ignored him or glared at him but they certainly never helped him. Second, because he could not understand what he had ever done to them all that they refused to be his friends.

Certainly, there were Kiba Inuzuka, Shikamaru Nara, and Choji Akimichi who occasionally skipped class with him, but Naruto was not sure they were friends. Of the three boys, none had ever invited him home, to a birthday party, or to do schoolwork together. And Naruto had never extended the invitation either because he lived in a miserable place he could barely afford and he certainly did not want anyone to find out he lived in what some would consider a ruin. Choji would not laugh but Naruto was sure the portly Akimichi would think no less, Shikamaru would have this sideways smirk the pineapple-haired boy had when he was amused, and Kiba would not even pretend and laugh. Showing the boys his place was simply out of the question. Not like they would accept an invitation in the first place.

So Naruto Uzumaki, that boy, the dobe, the friendless was known by many a nickname and for what reason he did not even know. But his all-time favorite was the one people tended to bellow after him just as he committed a prank. It was a loud, distorted, angry shout that vaguely resembled the word "brat". Yes, when people could not afford to ignore him, because he had dyed their underwears pink, sprinkled paillette in their food, swapped their wares, drawn smiley faces on their doors, or anything else he could think of, they called him. They ran after him. They screamed his last name.

When Naruto committed a prank, he had the villagers' full attention.

The best part was when the ninja started to run after him. Civilians could not keep up but ninja? Ninja totally could. So the boy did his best so that his pranks had repercussions on chunin or jonin. The higher level ninja would enrage having their combat fatigues turned jade blue, turquoise green, or sakura pink, and would chase him in what Naruto liked to think was a game of tag. No one had ever wanted to play tag with him, so the boy made do. And even if the players were not all consenting, it was all harmless fun in the end.

And Naruto liked to run. He was quick for his age, the quickest, and he could run for hours. There was nothing quite like the wind shuffling his blond, spiky locks like a loving hand and making his azure blue eyes water. There was nothing quite like slaloming through Konoha's back alleys, jumping, somersaulting, and rolling in a mad parkour race. Running at breakneck speed was the only way he felt alive. The only way he felt here. The only way he felt now.

Just this very morning, Naruto had realized his masterpiece. The prank of all pranks. The prankiest of his stunts, ever. He had arisen at three in the morning, donned his orange jumpsuit, and darted on top of the Hokage monument where he had patiently hauled various supplies needed for his project over the course of a month. Setting up a complex system of ropes to rappel down the cliff, sculpted to the effigies of the four Hokage, past and present, Naruto had then taken a various brush and paint cans and had proceeded to redesign the four faces of the village's honored leaders.

Dawn had come quickly but Naruto, garbed in the exact tint of orange needed to blend in with the ochre cliff, had escaped vigilance. One hour later, his work finished and the last touch added, the blond child had climbed up, set his rappelling gear aside, and screamed a very loud "good morning Konoha" at the top of his lungs.

The ensuing chase had mobilized twenty or so chunin and lasted three hours as Naruto led them through an obstacle course he had prepared for a month and a half now. It had been absolutely thrilling for the blond.

Eventually, he had allowed Iruka Umino, one chunin from the Academy and the only teacher who paid him attention, to catch him. He had run the entirety of his planned obstacle course anyway.

All this merry, in the blond's honest opinion anyway, game of tag led to Naruto's current situation. The boy was washing the painted, stony faces of the Hokage. The blond, far from the complete idiot people thought him to be, had fortunately gotten water-diluted paint, and was simply throwing buckets of water at his giant doodles, while hanging from his rappelling set-up.

Taken by thoughts of delicious ramen, the fascinating angles of the rock he was bouncing off of, and the shiny rainbow-y spume of the soapy water, the blond nearly could not hear his sensei's sigh as the content of another bucket splashed against the rock.

"Naruto?"

The blond looked up, balancing at the end of his rope like some sort of pendulum, a wide smile on his face. The wind was playing with Iruka's ponytail and it was fluttering in random patterns. "Yes sensei?"

"Why would you do it, Naruto?"

The bright smile faltered and the blond ceased his balancing. He could hear the disappointment in the teacher's voice. Naruto sighed but Iruka spoke before he could answer.

"You know how important this monument is, Naruto, so why?"

The blond knew Iruka enough to know the chunin would not be satisfied unless given a straight answer.

"It's the only way they look at me," said the blond in a subdued voice, barely above a murmur, his blue eyes darting away from the chunin.

Iruka sighed again, louder this time, rubbing his eyes with his right hand before massaging the large, horizontal scar across his face absentmindedly.

"There are other ways Naruto." The ninja instructor began in a tired tone. "You could show them how clever and hardworking you are but all you do is goof around!" It sounded like a broken record to Naruto's ears.

"But I'm trying sensei! I do my best!" The blond exclaimed in protest.

He did try. Not all subjects held his interest equally, that would be lying, but Naruto did try to perform adequately in all. Was it his fault no one, save Iruka, would answer his question? Was it his fault he was excluded from class for the slightest offense? Was it his fault he found geography dry and dusty because the old maps definitely were so? Was it his fault he found chemistry tedious? Was it his fault he could not follow the teachers' agonizingly slow lessons because following a dragonfly's wings' incredibly fast motions was much more interesting?

"If you did your best, you'd get the clone jutsu right!" The teacher exclaimed in response, too fast, and winced.

Naruto hung from his rope lamely, head down, his features set in a scowl to avoid the tears to show.

"I'm- I'm sorry Naruto but I'm worried. The exam is in two days and you still don't have it." Iruka said, voice wavering slightly from anguish. The teacher sat with a sigh, his legs dangling above the fourth Hokage's forehead. "I want you to pass Naruto but the Academy Three are required."

The blond nodded sadly. "I know sensei, I know but whatever I do, I can't get it."

Once again, the brown-haired chunin sighed. The why was a mystery but the blond could not get the clone jutsu. Of the Academy Three, the clone jutsu was maybe the most complicated but it was incomprehensible for Naruto to not manage it. The blond had the substitution jutsu down to a pat. His transformation was a bit shaky but passable. Yet the clone, which was technically demanding but not much more than the transformation, was impossible for Naruto. And while a certain average mark on theoretical materials was required, one Iruka had no doubt the blond would manage, the Academy Three were an absolute requirement. The students were training to be ninjas: if they could not do the simplest of ninjutsu, demonstrate correct taijutsu, and show they could escape a genjutsu, if not weave one, they would not graduate.

Once again, Iruka caught himself scratching his old scar. Looking back at the downtrodden Naruto, the teacher managed a weak smile.

"Look Naruto, how about you finish this and we grab some ramen, my treat," offered the chunin, knowing full well he had just put his wallet at risk.

Immediately, the blond's head shot up, his azure eyes shining as he looked at Iruka with a blinding smile, his previous worry pushed in a corner of his mind. "Ramen!" The blond exclaimed before enthusiastically returning to his cleaning work.

* * *

"There is absolutely no way." Hiruzen Sarutobi, reinstated Third Hokage of Konoha, said firmly to his cloaked, masked interlocutor, with all the might his sixty years old, war veteran frame could muster. And the so-called Professor could muster a lot of might.

"He will go to waste." Insisted the cloaked individual behind the white porcelain of a mask. The complete face protection was in the likeness of a dragon, with three red fang-like markings on its forehead. The mask was the tell of an ANBU member and the markings identified the figure as the _tokushugun-__taisho_, the general of the special force.

"He will have a normal team and learn normally-"

"Just like he was supposed to have a normal childhood?" The masked individual interrupted the Kage, their distorted voice cutting through the old man's answer.

"I will not listen to your recriminations," said the Hokage, his tone and commanding. "I followed the will-"

"Of a dying, delirious man. And you will listen to my recriminations, Hiruzen. You made mistakes, many, not all of the same gravity, but it is time you admit to it and handle the fallout. I offer you a way out of it."

"There is no reason for him to join. There is no need to put him through this grinder."

"How much more time will you coddle him? How much more time will you hide the truth from him. We are ninja Hiruzen!" The figure exclaimed, twitching slightly, his raised tone the only mark of his agitation. "Or are you too cowardly? Is that it? Will you wait for your successor to break him the new?"

Killing intent exploded and drowned the office, bending the floor and cracking the large plane of glass behind the old man's desk. "Watch your tongue, Dragon. You are talking to your Hokage," bit Hiruzen in an ice-cold voice.

"Then assume this damned hat and the responsibilities that go with it." The answer was equally cold. "Do you think you are the only one too old for your job? This mask is just as heavy."

An uneasy silence blanketed the room and the Hokage could only palm his face in weariness. "Forgive me Dragon." Hiruzen sighed. "Still, I see no reason for the boy to join the corps."

"What is your plan for him?"

"The classic balance, under jonin Hatake."

"Your officers are definitely out their mind. Have you even looked at the profiling?"

The Hokage took a breath in. "No."

Dragon resisted the urge to slap his forehead. The mask was quite resistant, it would hurt needlessly. "It is a disaster waiting to happen. He definitely won't fit and Hatake's own situation will probably make it worse. No Hiruzen, it's a sad plan and it's going to fail."

"ANBU is not a way to begin your ninja career normally."

The figure threw his arms in the air. "He will never live normally Hiruzen! You need to accept that. He did not have a normal childhood and he certainly won't have a normal ninja career. Now, your decision already made his infancy a living hell, do you want to do the same with his ninja life!?"

The Hokage released the breath he had been holding and his shoulder sagged under his white robes.

"ANBU will warp him."

"Being a ninja will warp him Hiruzen. Now you must decide if it will also kill him or not."

"You will not let this issue go, am I right?"

"Absolutely not Hiruzen. He has too much potential. He is too much potential."

"You will not use him, Dragon!"

"Oh by the flame, Hiruzen! I know you love the kid, hell he is pretty likable, but that does not change what he contains."

"We never had to funnel them through ANBU before."

Even behind the mask, Hiruzen could feel the deadpan look the figure was giving him. "Because the first was already an accomplished ninja and the second's status was actually a secret. Hiruzen, this discussion is over; I am taking the boy. If you still protest, I will make use of very, very tiresome legalese and reveal some secrets to have my way. It will give you paperwork and I'll still have him." The masked individual stated in a tone that was final. "Do we make this the easy or the hard way?"

Hiruzen paled, whether it was at the threat of secrets being revealed or supplementary paperwork added to the pile, none could tell, and sighed. "The easy way." The old man said, distraught.

The dragon masked figure nodded and gave his Hokage an eye-roll so powerful, the old men could hear it. "By the flame, don't treat like he is already dead, Hiruzen. I'll make sure he'll visit you. And if you desire, he'll have a certain talk with you."

* * *

Naruto was sitting on the swing in the courtyard of the Academy. He had failed. For the third time, he had failed the test. He knew he was not at the top of his class but his marks on the written tests were fine. He had not the best taijutsu, his was a deformation of the Floating Leaf style, the result of ingrained bad habits no one had corrected. His on the fly genjutsu was mediocre but he could get out of a C-ranked illusion. His shuriken jutsu was actually passable and would be better if not for the ruined knives he used. Hell, he could make his own storage and exploding seals if he had the required chakra paper and he was pretty sure he was the only one capable of that among his classmate.

But the truth of the matter was that, despite his best efforts, he could not make a damned clone. He knew the theory, had practiced for hours on end. Yet when he reached for the fractional amount of necessary chakra, the life energy coursing his pathway system would prove to be indomitable. His chakra simply could not be manipulated in such a minute quantity. Despite the agonizing hours spent on the leaf floating exercise, his control had not been enough.

The blond eyed his joyous classmates -ex-classmates he mentally amended- celebrating with their family, showing off their gleaming headband, none sparing a single glance at him. His keen ears picked the satisfied grunt of many parents, happy that that boy was not becoming a shinobi.

Distractedly, Naruto felt tears rolling down his cheeks. His whiskered cheeks. Not for the first time, he wondered if those whisker-like marks were the reason he could not graduate. The boy wiped the tears away. Dwelling on his failure would not accomplish anything. He could not pass this year, he would try against the next. He had sworn he would become Hokage, and he needed to be a ninja first for that.

Hopping down the swing, the blond brandished his right hand in front of him, finger tightened in a fist and screamed. "I'll do it! I swear I'll become a ninja, 'ttebayo!"

"Well, that's dedication."

Naruto nearly jumped out of his skin and whirled around. In front of him was a white-haired chunin, a bandana on his head.

"Mizuki-sensei?"

The man smiled. "Tell me, Naruto, how would you like a shot at the make-up test."

The blond gave the teacher a puzzled look before the words made it home. Hope, shy and wobbly but hope nonetheless, shone in the azure eyes. "Make-up test?"

Mizuki smiled larger. All according to plan.

* * *

A shadow darted from rooftop to rooftop, invisible in the dark cover provided by the moonless night. It stopped for a second when it reached the mass of the Hokage Tower. The Tower was a round building, painted in red, flanked by two smaller buildings of the same fashion. It was actually shorter than the blue topped Broadcast Station that stood next to it like an erect finger. Steadying its breathing, the shadow counted wordlessly. At some signal only they were privy to, the figure sprinted and jumped, latching itself to a gutter running along the wall of the Broadcast Station. Like some otherworldly cat, the shadow climbed up, using the tiniest holds in-between the white bricks that made the wall. With careful grace, the shadow reached the blue roof. It was a pointy wood construct, looking much like a witch's hat, with a strange sphere on top.

The shadow kept climbing until it was in the middle of the roof. Slowly, the individual took a length of rope and tied it solidly to one of the protruding beams of the blue roof. Glancing at its target, the flat roof of one of the secondary tower, the shadow smiled widely.

"This is completely crazy," whisper the individual, the vibrato of excitement clear for all to hear.

Meaning no one, at this hour of the night. The shadow shuddered. It had one try and one try only. A miss was a surefire way to end in the hospital at best.

Circling around the pointy roof, the shadow inhaled deeply. And started to run down and back toward the Hokage Tower.

The maths had proven that, in theory, the pendulum movement would allow the shadow to reach one of the secondary tower. The critical part was the speed but the individual was confident; running fast was their game.

At breakneck speed, wind whistling in its hair, the rope unrolling behind, the shadow ran on an oblique trajectory on the Station's wall and suddenly, jumped. The rope whizzed as the shadow fell, gravity taking what was her by right. The pendulum movement began as the rope was stretched to the max, the beam it was anchored to whining slightly. The figure was catapulted up by its momentum and suddenly, the individual felt weightless. It was at this point they cut the harness.

Naruto fell like an anvil and with a grunt, impacted the tiled roof of the northern secondary tower none too gently. Breaking the shock the best he could with a roll, the cloaked blond ended his course in the ornamental bushes that crowned the outer ridge of the tower.

"Ow ow ow," Naruto muttered, as low as he could, wary of the potential guard. He knew, according to the paper Mizuki had given him, that he should be right between rotation but still, the goal was to go unnoticed.

The blond took a second to dust himself. His black shirt was in tatter and his navy blue pants were torn at the knee. He had multiple cuts, the entire right side of his body hurt, and his left ankle was probably sprained but extraordinarily, he was fine. Naruto checked his various pockets to check everything was still where it was supposed to be and nodded to himself.

The rush had been great, the fall thrilling, and the second of weightlessness amazing but he was not doing that again. Ever. Naruto Uzumaki was a daredevil alright but that had been suicidal, in retrospect. The best entry possible, hell, the best entry ever as the rooftops were rarely patrolled but still, it had been a close call.

From the roof he was on, climbing on the main tower was a piece of cake. The first and second levels of each tower were protected so that it was virtually impossible to climb them, regardless of the technique. The third level was the same but the problem was nullified by various pipes and large cables running around the circumference of the Tower. Naruto had no idea of their purpose but right now, they made perfect holds to climb from one roof to another.

Taking a second to breathe, Naruto entered the tower. The easy part was done. Fortunately, he was used to infiltrating the Hokage Tower for his pranks. The blond knew the best hidey holes.

Navigating the corridors and hiding from the patrolling pairs of chunin, with the occasional jonin, was boringly easy and Naruto was quick to make it to his goal. The vault was sealed shut obviously but as a prankster, the blond knew how to pick the toughest lock. Naruto fished in his pocket and retrieved one of his best invention, something he was especially proud of.

In his right hand, the blond was holding a scroll that he promptly unrolled in front of the door. Holding his hands in a ram seal, the blond stepped on the scroll and whispered.

"Fuin: Sensory Mirror Wall."

The air shimmered around the blond and shifted. Now, Naruto had exactly four minutes to pick one of the most difficult lock, hidden by a genjutsu-like barrier fuinjutsu of his own making.

"Let's open you up."

Three minutes and forty second and one absolutely oblivious patrol later, the vault opened. Naruto guessed more than he knew for certain, that he had probably triggered a fuinjutsu based alarm but he could not do much about it. If there was fuinjutsu somewhere, it was too high level for him to detect it.

Losing no time, as it was now more than ever a scarce resource, Naruto stepped inside the fortified chamber and fastened a large and fat scroll on his back before darting out. Folding his left hand in a half tiger seal, the blond muttered a "katsu".

The scroll he had been standing on was reduced to ash just as several firework fuses burned out, launching their payload in the sky and illuminating Konoha.

If the entry had required some imagination, the exit was easier. Naruto simply dangled a roped from a window of the second floor and glided down while the patrolling guards were occupied with either his fireworks or the alarm at the vault.

Hiruzen Sarutobi was having a peaceful night when he was awakened by a burning sensation. The old ninja woke up immediately, years of combat did that to a man but searched a second for the reason of his awakening. His heart grew cold when he realized it was the tattoo signaling a breach of the vault that was heating up.

Just as he considered the implication of such a thing happening, fireworks illuminated the sky of Konoha. The old Kage swore under his breath.

Naruto skidded to a halt in a clearing. Konoha bore its name because of the dense forests out- and inside its walls and the blond was currently enjoying the relative security of a grove which would hopefully mask him to the soon to be pursuing shinobi.

He had not run far nor wide. The closer you are to your enemies, the safer you are after all. Naruto was inside Konoha proper, far enough from the Tower to not be caught during the first sweep but close enough that the ninja would look for the intruder outside first before eventually finding him. His position was the logical last option in the search order.

The blond opened the large scroll. He had approximately one hour to learn a jutsu, after which, Mizuki-sensei would allow him to graduate. The lingering light of the fireworks made it unnecessary for the blond to use a torchlight, something he had counted on. A torchlight was not very discreet after all.

"Shadow Clone jutsu," muttered Naruto before deflating. A clone technique? When he could not even perform the basic one? No way! Reading further, the blond lay eyes on techniques either too horrible to be learned or way, way too complicated. After five minutes of exploring the scroll, the blond sighed.

"Shadow Clone it is."

* * *

Naruto was sprawled, eagle spread, on the ground and the boy was panting hard. The Clone jutsu required him to reign in a small amount of energy and shape it in his image. The needed quantity was too small for the thundering flow of the blond's chakra. The Shadow Clone jutsu was the same but different.

The amount of chakra was not a problem, on the very contrary. The Shadow Clone needed the caster to mold a huge amount of life energy and project it in the shape of the user. The problem that stumped Naruto right now was the fact that a large part of the chakra was supposed to "fill" the shape. The goal was to achieve a solid clone made of pure chakra.

The blond had read about solid clone in a book about chakra theory. Usually, ninja would use earth or water as a putty of a sort and mold it with chakra to create what was commonly called an elemental clone. The required amount was substantially higher than for a standard clone but nowhere near the quantity required for a shadow clone.

Naruto suddenly blinked. Maybe he had to think of the problem like he would an elemental clone? Right now, he was trying to picture an empty shell that he had to fill up with chakra but that was maybe not the way. If he first expulsed as much chakra as possible and then shaped it, like a sculpture of sort, maybe it would work.

The blond broke his musing and nodded resolutely. He had wasted enough time, the hour was coming to a close. Deciding to test his new theory, the boy made a cross-shaped hand-sign. Carefully, the blond proceeded to join his physical and spiritual energies, creating chakra, in a process called merging, and pulsed the chakra through his hands. The specific cross-like shape was supposed to alter the properties of his chakra, much like standard hand-signs, in a process called molding. It had something to do with yang chakra but Naruto was not certain what it was. Focusing, the boy merged as much chakra as he could, modifying it through the hand-sign, and storing it back in his hara. It was difficult to merge fresh chakra while keeping the molded, ready to use energy on the side, so to speak, but Naruto managed.

After a minute, satisfied with the amount he had, Naruto took a deep breath before exhaling. "Alright, now to get it out." The blond muttered.

Pushing all the molded chakra through his hand one last time, the blond pulsed it all out from the tenketsu in his palms. With sweat pouring from his brow, Naruto focused on sculpting the sea of chakra that was surrounding him into a replica of himself. Head, limbs, hair, fingers, eyes, torso, clothes...

"Shadow Clone jutsu!" Roared the blond, eyes shut in concentration.

Only silence answered him. Tentatively, the boy opened one eye. Only for the second to shoot open at the sight that greeted him. In front of Naruto was… Naruto.

With a shaky hand, the blond poked his doppelganger's cheek and was elated when the clone grinned but did not disappear.

"Yatta!" Bellowed the blond while dancing around and with his replica. "I did it! I did it!"

"I did it! I did it!" Answer the clone, feeling every last bit of joy the original felt.

"We did it! We did it!" Chorused the duo, a grin brighter than the sun splitting both faces.

"Na-ru-to!"

The shout was so powerful, the duo of blond tripped and fell, the clone hitting his head on a small rock jutting out of the ground and dispelling in a cloud of smoke. Distractedly, the original noticed he had a sudden urge to rub the side of his head. The blond turned toward the origin of the shout to see Iruka, his head several times bigger than normal and slowly reverting to its original size.

"Hey, Iruka-sensei." The blond said, rubbing the back of his head.

"What is happening Naruto? Why…" Iruka trailed off as his eyes took the sight of his pupil. The blond looked exhausted and as if he had just fought with a pack of wolves. But more urgent was the large, fat, and terribly open scroll near the blond. "Oh no."

The teacher's tone immediately alerted Naruto something was wrong, very wrong. Getting back up, the blond walked carefully toward Iruka.

"Hum, sensei? What-"

He was silenced by the harshest glare Iruka had ever sent his way. Naruto flinched and recoiled.

"Do you have any idea what you have done? This is the Forbidden Scroll Naruto! What got into you?!" The teacher hurled with anger and worry.

Naruto felt his eyes water. Iruka had never been that angry with him. Sure the teacher had been exasperated one or two times but never to this extent. And all the same, Iruka had never been that worried. "Wh-What? B-but Mizuki-sensei said-"

"Mizuki?" Iruka questioned suddenly, interrupting Naruto.

The blond nodded and the puzzle pieces fell into place. It was Mizuki who had rung the alert, saying he had seen Naruto flee with the Forbidden Scroll. Mizuki, who had no business being anywhere near the Hokage Tower tonight. Mizuki, your average chunin, who had somehow seen Naruto when the multiple guards of the Tower had not. Mizuki, who, the last time Iruka had seen him, was geared like he was going to war.

Iruka sprung and tackled Naruto just as a circle of steel embedded itself where the blond was standing a second ago.

"Ah, Iruka." A familiar voice rang into the clearing. "You found him before me uh." A strange, high pitched grating sound was heard.

"Sen-sensei, what is happening?" Naruto asked, trembling.

Iruka steeled himself. "Naruto this is an order." The chunin jumped again, hauling the boy with him as another whistling chakram tore the earth on their last position. "You take this scroll and you run to the Tower." The chunin whirled and hid behind a tree, the trunk shielding him and his charge from a third circle of death. "Are we clear?"

Naruto could only nod, too lost to do much else. Iruka had his no-nonsense voice and Naruto would be damned before he went against it.

"I'll distract him. Be quick."

"As if!"

Iruka pushed Naruto just in time to duck under a kunai strike. The teacher sneered. "Mizuki."

The white-haired chunin simply attempted to strike again, his kunai biting through the air toward Iruka's arm, his other hand releasing a brace of shuriken toward Naruto. The brown-haired man angled himself so, that the strike caught him on his armor.

Chunin flak jackets were actually more than enough to block a sword strike, given the steel was not augmented with some chakra cutting ability. As it were, the kunai simply bounced off harmlessly and Iruka elbowed Mizuki in the face, breaking his nose.

The white-haired ninja swore and jumped back. Naruto had jumped out of the way of his shuriken and had rolled the Forbidden Scroll shut, ready to spring off and away. Mizuki was loath to admit it but if the blond demon started running, he would not catch up. In a split second, the traitorous chunin darted toward the boy, kunai ready to pierce his neck.

"Naruto!"

The blade cut through the blond's raised forearm and a kick just under the sternum sent him tumbling away, breath ragged. Before Mizuki could follow up, Iruka nearly stabbed him through the calf.

"Run Naruto!"

"Why… Are you… Defending him!" Mizuki growled, in-between strikes, one ringing true against the brown-haired man's jaw yet not phasing him, another one landing a knife through his opponent's left shoulder but leaving him overextended. "He stole the scroll!"

"You set him… Up!" Iruka punctuated his answer with a grappling move that ended with Mizuki's right elbow joint dislocated. The white-haired chunin howled in pain and Iruka elbowed him again, under the chin this time. The traitor stumbled back and both chunin broke the fight, panting.

The exchange had lasted thirty seconds, at most, but the two men were breathing as if they had just run a marathon.

"He killed your parents!"

Mizuki's sudden scream froze Naruto in place. The blond was ready to bolt, his breath steadier and his arms hugging the scroll like a lifeline, but the traitor's claim had him rooted to the ground.

"Wh-what?"

"Don't listen, Naruto! Run!"

"Do you know why you're treated like you are, demon?" Mizuki spat, intent on buying some time. He had not counted on Iruka being here and he had certainly not expected the brown-haired chunin to be in such good form.

"Mizuki shu-"

"You're the Kyuubi Naruto!" The white-haired man hollered madly. "You are a demon!"

Iruka shot like a bolt out of a crossbow, taking the traitor by surprise and landing a solid hit on his head before Mizuki retaliated with a kunai cutting Iruka's leg.

"I'm… I'm what?" whispered the blond boy, still frozen and incapable of processing what had just been said.

Yet it made a twisted sense. How the people in Konoha were afraid of him, angry at him, ignored him. But the demon had been killed by the fourth Hokage. He had learned it in history class. He had killed the demon on the day of… Naruto's… Birth.

Mizuki smirked through the haze Iruka had put him in. The bastard had hit him hard but he had won the exchange. The cut on the brown-haired man's leg would slow him. Slow him too much to save the demon. The traitor took another brace of shuriken and hurled the whirling stars of steel toward the blond abomination.

"Naruto!"

The world slowed as Iruka saw the shuriken cut through the air toward Naruto. The steel stars were absolutely harmless against an armor wearing opponent, not much more than a distraction. Against the frozen boy, the would possibly cut an artery and he would bleed out. Iruka melded chakra in a heartbeat and flooded his leg muscles with raw life energy before jumping.

Naruto watched as the deadly stars sped toward him. He wanted to move, desperately so, but he could not. His body refused to obey him and his mind was too preoccupied with puzzling the impossible revelation Mizuki had imparted unto him. For a second, he wondered how the situation had degenerated so before closing his eyes.

The shuriken gave a muffled sound when they embedded themselves in Iruka's flak jacket. But the pained scream that escaped the teacher throat when his leg muscles either cramped on him or tore covered everything.

"Iruka… Sensei?"

"Run, Naruto." The chunin bit through the pain.

For a second, the blond contemplated the idea before the consequences of such an act hit him. If he left right here and right now, Mizuki would kill Iruka. The thought of such a thing happening filled Naruto with white-hot anger. Magmatic fury. Earth shattering scorn. The blond melded chakra, every last bit, and to hell with it if some of it felt terribly raw. His fingers crossed in front of him to mold the raging maelstrom of life energy flooding his pathway, the blond roared.

"Shadow Clone jutsu!"

A wave of powerful, scathing chakra expanded outward and smoke filled the clearing.

Before Iruka's gobsmacked eyes and Mizuki's terrified ones stood a hundred or so blond boys, their face distorted by righteous fury and their knuckles cracking in anticipation.

"I'll beat you to a pulp, 'ttebayo!" chorused the blonde army.

And Naruto made good on that promise, overwhelming the already shaken traitor in a sea of blond and blue, leaving a twitching, bloody, unconscious mess sprawled on the ground not twenty seconds later. Their office done, the army of clones dispelled, leaving a wobbling Naruto behind, the blond momentarily suffering from a splitting headache.

"Na-Naruto…"

The original blond whirled toward his teacher, who was eying him with a mix of awe, relief, and worry. The boy rubbed his head, the strange pain already forgotten.

"I went too hard, did I?"

Iruka chuckled weakly. "No… Not really." The teacher suddenly scowled, the pain of his wrecked legs catching up thought his astonishment.

"Iruka-sensei, are you okay?" asked Naruto worriedly, trying his best to help the chunin stand. The man grimaced and the blond simply propped him up against a tree.

"I shot my legs," answered the man. A shift in his position made him growl. "Ow, ow, ow, I'm definitely upping my training," joked Iruka with a weak smile.

Naruto looked down, biting his lower lips. "Sensei, what… What happened? What Mizuki said…"

Iruka ruffled the blond hair. "First thing first, Naruto. I think I have the gist of it but tell me why you stole the scroll." He ordered in a pained voice.

The blond's eyes watered. "I didn't… I didn't want…" And Naruto explained to Iruka how Mizuki had offered him a shot at a "make-up" test.

"I'm never gonna be a ninja, am I?" Naruto concluded, voice strained by held up tears.

Having the entire story, Iruka sighed. Twice. The man then offered a smile to his student.

"Come here Naruto, and close your eyes."

The blond obeyed hesitantly. He heard some shuffling sound and felt something be fastened around his forehead.

"Open your eyes now."

Iruka, without his headband, was smiling at him warmly. With hesitant hands, Naruto touched the rectangle of steel bearing the leaf insignia. Warm tears fell and rolled down his cheeks.

The blond jumped at his sensei and squeezed the man in a hug, sobbing his thanks.

It was that scene a team of ANBU discovered, a minute later.

* * *

"So, to summarize…" Seated in the Hokage office, Naruto told the old man how his night had gone. Iruka had been carried to the hospital and it was the blond's responsibility to explain himself. It took twenty minutes but Naruto explained the best he could, trying his best to not forget any details.

Hiruzen Sarutobi was tired. So very tired. He had but one wish right now, and it was to go to bed. The night had been nightmarish. Someone had infiltrated the Tower right under the nose of the guards, picked the lock of the vault, and made off with the Forbidden Scroll, all without the use of chakra. Then Mizuki Hashiru, a chunin, had pretended to see Naruto, of all people, with the scroll. And Mizuki had revealed to be a traitor, having coned Naruto into believing there was a makeup exam for the one the boy had just failed, and planning to kill the jinchuriki and disappearing with the scroll. And the situation had miraculously resolved itself thanks to Iruka Umino discovering Naruto, fighting Mizuki to a standstill, and Naruto beating the traitorous chunin to a pulp thanks to the Shadow Clone jutsu.

The Hokage groaned, half in frustration, half in weariness, entirely in relief. It was a fucking miracle, no less. The old man eyed the blond boy sitting before him. Naruto had the decency to have his blue eyes lowered in shame. Hiruzen sighed.

"I, Hiruzen Sarutobi, Hokage of Konohagakure, have taken into consideration the recommendation of chunin Iruka Umino to grant to Naruto Uzumaki a field promotion to genin. By my authority, I confirm the recommendation. Do you accept it, Naruto Uzumaki?"

Naruto immediately stood at attention like he had been taught in the Academy, feet joined, left hand above the heart, right hand on flat on his right calf, and furiously nodded.

"Yes, Hokage-sama!"

The old man smiled. "Then welcome to the Kogun, genin Uzumaki."

Naruto bowed, doing his best to contain the smile that wanted to blossom on his lips.

"Now I think we have another matter to discuss."

The Hokage's grave tone immediately brought the blond back on earth.

"Yes, Hokage-sama?" asked the boy hesitantly.

"Now that you have been exposed to lies, we believe it'd be unwise to not address the question properly." Another voice, gruff and distorted, rang out.

Naruto did it best not to jump and turned. Behind him was an ANBU with a dragon mask.

"Naruto, meet Dragon, ANBU's general. Dragon, Naruto." The Hokage said in a tired voice.

"Is it… Is it about what Mizuki said?"

The masked ANBU nodded. "Yes. You have to know the truth about your status."

"My status?"

The ANBU supreme commander nodded again. "Mizuki told you were the Kyuubi. It is not true. You are the Kyuubi's jinchuriki."

"Dragon!" The old Kage exclaimed, apparently wishing the cloaked individual had been less blunt.

"Jin… Churiki?" Naruto tried the word. It was unknown to him.

The ANBU ignored the Hokage's outburst. "We told the population the Kyuubi was killed by the Yondaime. It wasn't, for the simple reason no man found a way to kill a bijuu yet. The Yondaime trapped the beast inside an infant."

There was a pregnant silence for a few seconds before the boy broke it.

"Me." It was not a question. Naruto wasn't stupid and could put two and two together to obtain four. Most of the time at least.

"You," confirmed the ANBU.

"But… But I… Then…" Naruto frowned, too confused to feel much else.

"You are the Kyuubi's warden. Its prison, if you will."

"The boy gulped. "So… I'm not a demon?"

"Of course not my boy!" The Hokage exclaimed heatedly. "And allow no one to call you that!"

Naruto felt his eyes prickle and water despite him. "But then… Why? Why do they treat me like that?" The boy asked with a shaky voice.

Both the Hokage and the ANBU sighed. The cloaked figure threw a glance at Hiruzen, who nodded.

"They fear you Naruto. The Kyuubi caused a lot of pain, which you are a constant reminder of-"

"But I did not ask for it!" The blond exclaimed, tears streaking down his whiskered face. "It's not my fault!" He protested again, voice racked with sobs.

The Hokage rose from his seat and hurriedly engulfed the boy in a hug. Hiruzen sighed. Naruto was so very young still.

"Of course not Naruto. Of course not. But the pain the Kyuubi caused turned to fear, and fear to hate, and rather than see you as the hero you are, they blame their sorrow on you." Hiruzen explained.

"They decided to cling to their hate and blame you, rather than honor the sacrifice of the one they claim they love." The ANBU interjected. "Truly, they understand nothing."

Naruto broke the hug suddenly and took a step back. His teary face was set in a scowl, one Hiruzen had never seen on the blond's face.

"They are… They are such ingrates!" The boy hurled in anger. "All this time they hated me for something I didn't do?!" Naruto's tone was heated but mainly held disbelief. And frankly, all assembled in the room could understand why. Then, something struck him.

"How… How do they even know? Why do they know what… Who… What I am?" demanded the blond with steel in his voice.

It made no sense. Konoha after the Kyuubi's attack had been a field of smoking ruins. Naruto had seen the photos. How come the entire population of Konoha, which certainly had better things to do at the time, knew of him?

"The Yondaime wished for you to be seen as a hero and I… I foolishly granted him his last wish," Hiruzen explained quietly, voice strained by anguish. "But the people I so trusted betrayed me… Us, they betrayed us, their leaders. They betrayed the Will of Fire and I couldn't convince them of their folly. So I made a law when I saw that the survivors would hate you. They were not to speak to anyone to your condition." The voice of the old man wavered and broke for a second. "I hoped that'd allow you to live normally. To… To make friends."

Naruto winced and his scowl came back with a vengeance. "Well, that worked well," sneered the blond, anger thick in his voice. "It worked so very well." He muttered again bitterly, before deflating.

"Why me, though?"

Why him? The bad luck of the draw? The only baby available? No, that could not be right: nearly all his classmates were older than him. His brain made and discarded scenarios one after the other. The Kyuubi had not been near the hospital. Yet, according to the old man, Naruto's parents had died in the attack. Were they ninja then? No, otherwise, the records would have DNA information and he would not bear the Uzumaki namesake. His parents were civilians, logically. Maybe he was born at home? Had his parents died in the first sweep of the tails? But then he should have died too. Why did the fourth choose him, an orphan, to hold the beast? Had his parents offered him?

Was he an orphan before the Fourth chose him, or after? The thought froze Naruto.

"The Fourth-"

"Killed my real parents." Naruto declared, his voice a monotone.

"What!?" The Hokage sputtered in abject horror. "What gave you this idea?"

"Why me? Why not one of the clan kids? The Fourth had an entire generation of clan heir to choose from but no, he picked a nameless orphan. That raises questions, doesn't it?" The blond spoke quickly but his voice was still just as emotionless.

The reasoning made the Kage's eyes widen. "N-no, Naruto, of course the Fourth-"

"Then they abandoned me. They were disgusted by me."

"Of course not!"

"Then why me!?" Naruto screamed in rage, anger tainting his chakra and leaking like poison, the floor creaking under the pressure. "Who were my parents? Where are they now? Why did they allow the damned Yondaime to use me?"

"I cannot-"

"Kushina Uzumaki."

The calm, distorted voice rang through the office, assuaging Naruto's mounting fury and silencing the Kage. The blond turned to the ANBU.

"What?"

"Dragon, I order you-"

"Your mother's na-"

Killing intent erupted and faster than one could blink, the Hokage was holding the ANBU by its throat, lifting the individual above ground, effectively strangling them.

"One more word and I'll have you executed." The Sarutobi threatened.

"Kushina… Uzumaki."

Hiruzen shuddered when he felt a glare being levied on him by the one person he had hoped would never glare at him.

"You knew," whispered Naruto. "All this time you knew. And you told me nothing." The blond continued in a hushed murmur.

Hiruzen's dark eyes met Naruto's azure orbs and the old Kage's heart broke when all he could see was betrayal and disappointment.

"Hokage-sama, may I be excused?" The blond asked, his voice absolutely blank. But Hiruzen balked.

"Naruto…"

"By your leave, Hokage-sama."

The old man sighed. "Dismissed, genin Uzumaki."

Naruto lost no time and bolted out of the office. Hiruzen glared harshly at the ANBU he was still strangling.

"I should execute you."

"You… Are… A coward," spat the masked man, his throat held shut by the vice-like grip of the old Kage.

Hiruzen opened his hand and the commander fell in a heap on the ground, wheezing and massaging their throat. "You are dismissed, Dragon."

The ANBU rose to its feet and nodded stiffly. "To solve a problem, one needs to face it."

"Out!" The old Hokage roared.

* * *

Naruto dragged himself through the streets of Konoha, dawn illuminating the village with its first lights. His thoughts were whirling around chaotically in his head. The Hokage had repeatedly told him he did not know who his parents were and Naruto had come to accept it. Now the blond discovered the old man he trusted had lied to him. What other truths had his grandfather figure withheld from him? The Kyuubi, his parents, what was next, a hidden family member?

And the village hated him for something he had no control over. Since little, he had dreamed to gain their acknowledgment and the Hokage had assured him that if he tried, he would. But now, Naruto was second-guessing himself. He was not giving up, absolutely not, for giving up was not the Naruto Uzumaki way. But was gaining the acknowledgment of a group of ungrateful bigots even worth it? Was it even possible? If all they could see in him was the fox, then being Hokage would change nothing.

The blond climbed the stairs to his tiny flat and entered his two rooms apartment. The place was in tatter and it wasn't even his fault. Mostly. But the sorry state of his place was of no concern to the boy right now. Naruto plopped down his run down sofa and kept on thinking.

He did not hate the villagers, he decided. They were hateful ignorants who had made their choice and they had made Naruto's life difficult, quite difficult actually, but the boy refused to hate them. He would not become a hateful ignorant himself, Naruto decided firmly. He would be better than them.

Which did not mean he could not hold them in contempt. He could be beyond reproach, the best of all, the Hokage, he could not tell Konoha what to feel and think about him. Certainly, his pranks had not helped but still but it mattered little ultimately. He could not change people. Only people could change themselves.

Naruto sighed and looked at his hands. Sometime during his musings, he had loosened his headband. The piece of engraved steel reflected his face. The metal was muted, the various small scratch dulling its shininess. There was even a small brown spot. Blood recently dried up. Iruka's or Mizuki's. What did he truly want? Did he even have the choice?

With the beast trapped within him, Naruto reckoned the answer to that was "probably not". So if he did not have the choice, he had to make the best of it. If being a ninja was his path, he'd be the damn best ninja possible, 'ttebayo. He'd never be helpless again like tonight. He'd never have someone fight for him like tonight. He'd never be found wanting.

Naruto's grip tightened around the headband and his face hardened in resolution, he fastened the insignia around his head again.

"I'm a ninja now, 'ttebayo," whispered the boy in a low but confident voice.

**A/N: I hope you enjoyed. I'm certainly NOT abandoning my other story. It's just, I read some ANBU fics and I thought I'd relax a bit and write my own, with chapters somewhat on the short side, 4,000-5,000 words maybe. Ended up with 9,000 words. It was a mistake. For the infiltration scene (re)watch Mission Impossible 3 to understand the pendulum manoeuver better.  
**

**A/N 2: I will warn new readers here that this fic starts slow. I'm currenlty working on trimming the fat but jutsu and explosions do not come before chapter 11 as it is right now (30/07/2019).**


	2. Chapter 2 Job offer

**A/N: I own nothing. If you own the picture and you want it down, tell me. If you own Naruto then we can negotiate.**

* * *

Naruto woke up, eyes bleary from lack of sleep and stomach protesting in hunger, to the sound of someone insistently knocking on his door. It took a minute for the boy to collect himself and realized he was on his couch. Racking his brain to understand why he was on his living room rather than in his bed, Naruto yawned. A yawn wide enough to unhinge his jaw. It was at this moment he remembered the strange, heavy, never felt before wave of exhaustion falling on him like a cloak of lead earlier in the morning. Before he could think about it in more detail, the knocks on his door doubled and the blond hopped off of his small sofa and stumbled through his flat, his gait shaky, towards his door.

"Yes, yes," groaned the blond while opening the wooden panel.

Standing in his doorway was a masked ANBU. Naruto started slightly, stifled another yawn, and shook his head left and right to dissipate the last remnant of sleep.

"What can I do for you, ANBU-san?"

"You have been summoned by the Hokage, Uzumaki-san. Be at the Tower at noon. It is currently eleven, for your information."

"Hai, ANBU-san," answered Naruto with a bow. The masked individual simply disappeared in a swirl of leaves, his mission accomplished. The blond yawned again. It was unusual for him to feel this tired, as normally, a few hours of sleep had him energized for a day.

Naruto chalked it up to the events of the night and closed his door when what the ANBU had just told him hit him truly. He was summoned by the Hokage. The event of the night flooded his mind. He was a genin now. What did the Hokage want with him? Would Naruto be placed on a team? He had no idea when team placement would happen. Did he actually need to fill paperwork and sign wavers?

The blond frowned. How did he feel about the man he called "Grandpa" anyway? Where were they standing now? Naruto was angry at this surrogate grandfather for hiding the truth for so long. He was a real Uzumaki, whatever it meant, and his mother's name was Kushina. He could only wonder why the old man had hidden the identity of his mother.

It wasn't the surname, logically. If "Uzumaki" had been dangerous in some way, then he would not carry the name. That was assuming the old man actually cared about him. Naruto felt his innards sink at the thought. Had the Hokage's apparent affection been faked? Was the old man like everyone else, wishing for the blond to disappear, but better at hiding it? Had the elder ninja been callous behind a facade of gentleness?

Naruto's frown deepened before he shook his head and shuddered. No, he could not think like that! He was angry at his grandfather for lying but one lie did not mean everything was veiled in deceit.

What did several lies for twelve years mean, though? The Kyuubi, his parents, then what else? It certainly meant the Hokage did not trust him. Not even with the name of Naruto's very own mother. And if the Hokage knew his mother, he had to have a reasonable clue as to the identity of his father.

The blond was shaking, a weird mix of emotion he could not identify twisting his guts. There was anger, disappointment, betrayal, and loss. Naruto did not know where he himself stood right now. He knew the world of ninja was lying and killing, in theory at least. It was Konoha's bread and butter after all. Discovering your entire life was shrouded in a layer of lies was not agreeable. At all. The question was, how many layers and how many lies in all?

Yes, Naruto was angry with his grandfather. Could he be angry with the Hokage though? Not really. Now that he was a genin, he would not get away with his usual attitude. And the Hokage was his commanding officer; their relationship had to be at the very least cordial. The blond sighed loudly.

Yesterday, his life was simple. He was a nobody, the villagers hated him for no reason, and the Hokage was a kind grandpa who Naruto trusted absolutely. Today, his life was more complicated than ever. He was the jinchuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, the villagers were dickish idiots, and the Hokage had lied to him about not knowing who his parents were. The blond clasped his hands around his temples and groaned as he shook his head left and right.

"Why me?"

After a minute of careful consideration and waiting, Naruto had to accept the answer would probably not fall from above and directed his steps toward the shower. Whether he liked the old man or not, he could not say no to a meeting requested by the Hokage.

Under the hot running water and now in front of a cup of steaming instant ramen, Naruto had been and was thinking still about this mysterious mother of his. Inhaling some noodle with a noisy slurping sound, the blond thought hard about the secrecy. Was his mother a criminal and was it the reason he had been chosen to host the Bijuu? But had it been the case, Naruto would probably not be named Uzumaki. His name was supposedly honored within Konoha: the flack jackets of chu- and jonin bore the red spiral of the Uzumaki clan. Maybe his mother had been an orphan much like him and was simply bearing the namesake? Naruto had the name of his mother, half the answer to one of his life long question and yet it brought even more questions.

The biggest being, why was it such a secret?

The blond slurped the last of his noodles when an idea hit him. He could send a shadow clone. They were intelligent, tangible clones after all. He could send one or two at the Academy library and they could look up the Uzumaki name. And he could send one to the Archives. He had a headband now, he could not be denied access. The boy nodded, satisfied with his plan, and crossed his fingers to mold the necessary chakra.

"Shadow Clone jutsu!"

In a triple puff of smoke, three replicas appeared. Naruto smiled and designed two of them.

"You two-"

"Library, got it!" said one before the two darted out toward his room to exit a second later with some blank scrolls to take note on.

"And I'll go to the Archives boss!" exclaimed the third clone before doing the same circuit as the two other, exiting the flat with what was necessary for his mission.

Naruto held a puzzled expression for a second before he realized what the actions of his clones meant. If he created shadow clones with one or several purposes in mind, they knew what to do already. This jutsu was beyond awesome! A wide smile blossomed on Naruto's face. Learning the Shadow Clone was worth the trouble of the night. Maybe. Almost. Considering Iruka's injuries, probably not. As a second thought, Naruto realized he had no idea how much time a Shadow Clone actually lasted. His smile faltered but the boy decided it was of little importance, ultimately. With or without shadow clones, he would do his research.

The wide smile returning to his face, the blond exited his flat. He had ten minutes to reach the Hokage Tower; he was on time.

* * *

Hiruzen Sarutobi was tired, weary, done with it, but above all he was anxious. Because of his stupid ANBU commander, there was no telling how Naruto would be with him. The Hokage sighed. He had lied, for so long, justifying the secret with increasingly flimsy reasons. He knew the truth would one day be revealed to the boy but Hiruzen had hoped… Something.

Maybe his old masked friend was right. Maybe age had made him cowardly. Hiruzen sighed again. No, not age, age was an excuse. A part of him had always been like this. He could lead and fight a war, slaughter countless souls, but when it came to people he was attached to, he could not face his mistakes. Tsunade, Orochimaru, his sons, and now Naruto. A growing list of people he had been too afraid to face, for various reasons.

He just hoped Naruto was only angry with him. He could not take it if the boy decided to hate him. Hiruzen leveled a glare at the dragon masked shadow standing in the corner of his office. All because some rowdy subordinate had seen fit to talk. Despite the mask, the Hokage could feel the commander was answering with a glare of his own. The two old men locked eyes for a minute in a staring contest, heavily in favor of the cloaked man as glaring at a blank mask was incredibly jarring.

The Hokage averted his gaze first and sighed. "I would like to apologize for earlier." The old man breathed out like someone had ripped a tooth out of his mouth. "I was-"

"Tired, worried, and not thinking clearly," completed the masked commander. "There is not much to forgive. I will not retract my words, though, if that is what you are counting on."

"The boy will hate me now." Hiruzen almost whined.

"If that is the extent of your trust in him, then he would be right to do so." Dragon answered in a scathing monotone.

The Hokage winced and palmed his face. "You are right of course."

Silence fell on the two ninja. Dragon was perfectly still while the Hokage was fidgeting with increasing intensity.

"What will you tell him?" The ANBU asked suddenly, stopping Hiruzen's flailing.

"What?"

"The boy will need answers, Hiruzen," chided the ANBU in a vaguely impatient tone. "The only questions are, what answers and who will give them."

"His father's name is a secret, that is non-negotiable."

"I know the logic behind that and it is erroneous by now. It will do much more harm when the truth eventually comes out-"

"I said non-negotiable!" The Hokage boomed, his fist impacting his desk, killing intent flaring.

"Are your eyes still seeing straight, Hiruzen?!" Roared the ANBU in response, his own intent crashing against the Hokage's. "You're pushing the dirt under the carpet, hoping it won't explode in your face! In all of our face!"

"He will hate me!"

"Do you think so little of him? And are you willing to risk his loyalty for personal feelings!?"

The Hokage deflated. "Did I not sacrifice enough?" He pleaded.

"And maybe Naruto didn't? Maybe I didn't? If the hat hangs too heavy, you know what to do, Hiruzen. If you won't face the responsibilities of being Hokage, then stop."

The Hokage chuckled humorlessly. "And who will replace me, uh? Tsunade, the wrecked drunk? Jiraiya, the man-child? Kakashi, lost in his grief? Tell me Dragon, who is strong enough to wear this hat?" Hiruzen spat.

The ANBU sighed. He refrained himself from telling the Hokage how two of the three problems were products of his continued refusal to face them and straighten them and sighed again. If the mask wasn't in the way, the shadow would have rubbed their eyelids. The figure closed their eyes and blinked when an idea hit.

"Groom him," said the ANBU slowly.

Hiruzen focused his eyes on the mask. "I'm sorry?"

"Groom Naruto."

The Hokage's left eyebrow rose but it was the extent of his surprise. "I thought you wanted him?"

"Shadow Clones," answered the commander, as if it was the answer for everything.

Silence fell on the office again as Hiruzen contemplated the idea. Shadow clones did seem like they were the answer. Maybe not to everything but certainly to this. The old Kage sighed and slumped. It did not solve his more immediate problem.

"We… I can't tell him. If he comes to hate me, Fire, I couldn't take it." The Hokage whispered, miserable.

The ANBU stood silent for a minute. "Have you forgotten Tobirama-sensei lessons, Hiruzen?" The operator asked gently. "Is your Flame of your Will extinguished? Lost? We are shinobi, Hiruzen, we endure."

"But-"

"Naruto is a shinobi too, now. Who are you to say he cannot endure with you?" The ANBU interrupted. "Tobirama-sensei trusted us with the future, Hiruzen. It's time we do the same with the young generation."

The old Kage's shoulders sagged and a long sigh escaped him just as a weight seemed to be lifted from him.

"Are you sure you do not want the hat?" The Hokage asked, half-jokingly.

"We both know why it is impossible, old friend."

The Hokage nodded. "Indeed we do."

Silence fell again, comfortable this time.

"So, what will you tell him?" The ANBU asked, his monotone back.

The Hokage rubbed his eyes. "About his mother, everything I can. I do not know how he will take to the news of his father."

"As well as we could reasonably hope he does."

"Meaning bad."

"Yes. Probably. But it's only fair."

A knock on the door interrupted the two. Hiruzen sighed but nodded minutely and another ANBU appeared from the shadow to open the armored panel of fake wood. The Hokage's secretary, a petite brunette woman, was standing in the frame.

"You summoned Naruto Uzumaki, Hokage-sama?"

"Indeed, Miki, thank you."

The woman nodded once and allowed a blond-haired, blue-eyed, whiskered boy to enter the office. The armored door was closed immediately.

"You asked for me, Hokage-sama." Naruto said in his best monotone.

Hiruzen felt his heart tighten at the address. Yesterday, the boy would have gone with a sonorous "what's up Jiji?" and Hiruzen would have smiled at the blond's brightness. Today, the usual sunny disposition of the boy was subdued, hidden by a veil of clouds. A veil of deceit.

"Much like I veiled the truths of his life," thought Hiruzen sadly.

"Yes, Naruto, I did," answered the Kage eventually. "You are here to discuss your ninja career. Sit down please."

Naruto nodded and took the offered seat and had to reign in a jump when an ANBU, the same dragon masked one as yesterday, as far as he could tell, spoke.

"Hello, Uzumaki-san."

The risk of cardiac arrest averted and after some choice curse words about sneaky cloaked freaks muttered under his breath, Naruto chose to answer.

"Hello, ANBU-sama."

"Dragon, Uzumaki-san."

Naruto nodded. "Hai, Dragon-sama."

"Dragon here as a proposal for you, Naruto. I want to be clear that you are in no way forced to accept. Am I clear?" asked Hiruzen.

It was the deal the Hokage and Dragon had agreed on, which pretty much amounted to following the normal rule of ANBU: potential recruits were scouted by the corps but only those who volunteered could be considered for enrollment.

Naruto nodded. "Clear, Hokage-sama."

The boy eyed the ANBU with undisguised curiosity. He had no idea why he was here but if the ANBU commander himself… Herself? Themselves was here, it promised to be interesting.

"Naruto Uzumaki, born October tenth, year one thousand two hundred and fifty-three of Fire Country calendar. Made genin yesterday by field promotion. Failed the classic graduation process three times." The masked shadow enumerated.

Naruto felt his hopes take a dive at the last part and lowered his head in shame. It wasn't his fault the damned clone jutsu was impossible for him.

"Frequently prank the villagers with harmless stunts and outrun the ensuing chase party of chunin easily, often leading them into traps of his own making."

The boy had honestly no idea if he was supposed to be proud or ashamed so settled for rubbing the back of his head.

"Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi. Investigations reveal that despite this situation being known by most of the teaching body, it was not properly addressed. The massive chakra reserves and abysmal control resulting from being a jinchuriki were never worked on by any teachers. As such and very obviously, the ninjutsu part of Uzumaki's exam was failed."

Naruto perked up at that. So being a jinchuriki gave him big chakra reserve and shot his control. And the teachers knew and did nothing? Did Iruka also know? The boy felt indignant but decided to listen further.

"Individual is brash and lacks discipline. He also displays a lack of focus during certain activities, frequently acts up during his classes and dress in orange, which, for a ninja in training, is beyond weird. The last two behavior can be attributed to Uzumaki's craving for attention."

Naruto felt heat coloring his cheeks. His hand fell lamely on his thigh and the boy looked down. The assessment was truthful but it was not agreeable to hear. Yeah, all subjects did not hold his attention equally, it was so for everyone. Yes, he knew he was supposed to have the attention span of a toddler, mean teachers had repeated that to him numerous times. Yes, being a clown was not glorious but at least his classmates laughed, even if it was at him. Yes, it was tiring to be ignored and disregarded and orange was a color no one could unsee. Naruto scowled to avoid crying.

"These are the general observations of one of my agent, who was tasked with observing you, for two years. How do you feel about this report, Uzumaki-san?" Dragon asked, surprisingly gentle.

Naruto looked up at the mask and gulped. Averting his eyes from the blank armor of porcelain, the boy bit through his own constricted throat. "I… It's true," Naruto said feebly.

"If I told you, you could benefit from the attention of several unbiased instructors, ready to help you learn and punch discipline into you, would you be interested?"

The blond's eyes shot up and anchored themselves on the blank mask, trying intently to see through the porcelain.

"If I told you I could find you a team who would trust you with their life, would you be interested?"

Naruto's jaw went slack and hope shone in his blue eyes.

"If I told you, you could be away from the villagers, hidden from their view, would you be interested?"

The boy started to nod enthusiastically before disbelief slowly etched its way in his blue orbs. After a second, they went down. "Yeah, but I doubt any of that is possible."

"A fair sentiment. That is why I would like to offer you a trial run."

"A trial run?"

"A trial run in ANBU."

Naruto's brain had to restart after a total freeze. A trial run in ANBU; the man had just offered Naruto to join ANBU, the best of the best, the elite among the elite, those tasked with missions no one knew about. The Leaf's shadows, the silent kunai, the answer to Konoha's enemies.

The men and women with cool masks and the shadowy cloak!

The blond boy had to reign in the urge to bounce around the office. Dragon had just told him he lacked discipline and Naruto had a hunch his exuberance would be seen as such. The boy breathed deeply to calm himself and directed his haywire thoughts at the offer.

Dedicated teachers, a group to belong to, and hidden from the village. The boy realized it was pretty much what he dreamed of. It was too good to be true, actually, and his enthusiasm nose-dived. It was so good it couldn't possibly be true. Something would not work out. Something was lying in wait to screw him.

"I… I… Why?" Naruto eventually asked, at a loss of what to think.

The ANBU shifted. "Just yesterday," began the operator in a neutral voice, "you infiltrated the Hokage Tower without using chakra, in a way no one even thought about, demonstrated creative abilities in fuinjutsu, stole the Forbidden Scroll from the vault by picking one of the most secure lock in Konoha, escaped pursuit by remotely detonating firework to throw off your pursuers, learned a high level jutsu in an hour or so, and it is only thanks to the traitor we knew of your identity."

The ANBU took a deep gulp of air, his breathing short from the enumeration. "And you ask why? Uzumaki-san, despite what some might say, that's what I call talent, and it has the excellent taste to be backed up by hard work."

Naruto blushed at what he was quite certain was praise. Presented like that, his little escapade last night did sound pretty awesome. The blond scratched the back of his scalp.

"You… You mean it?" The blond smiled, illuminating the room. "He he, I knew I was awesome."

"Yes, you are so awesome you were manipulated by a traitor to steal one of Konoha most dangerous asset and you did not even stop to think about it." The commander deadpanned.

Naruto deflated. Presented like that, his little escapade last night did sound pretty stupid and terrible. The boy fidgeted awkwardly.

"First lesson, Uzumaki-san, whether you accept or not: a ninja must be humble."

The blond nodded. "Hai, Dragon-sama." He answered in a subdued voice.

"Good. Now, Uzumaki-san, what will you decide?"

Naruto looked down at his feet, his hands resting on his lap. He wasn't sure. Confusing and contradictory trains of thoughts were whirling around in his mind. What about being Hokage; could an ANBU don the hat? And if he went into the shadows, how would the villagers ever come to see him? The blond shook his head and hardened his features. No, he had already decided the reasons for his dream were meaningless. And behind a mask and a cloak, he would get the respect he wanted. It would not be for him per se but for the function, he would represent, he knew that. But maybe that was the lot of all ninja. Celebrity, of any kind, was not shinobi business after all, and it was incidental if it happened.

And he was a ninja now. He had also decided to become a fine one, the finest shinobi he possibly could be. If celebrity and fame ever found him, then perfect and maybe then the villagers would change but chasing after it made little sense. ANBU seemed like a good place. Invested instructors rather than neglectful teachers, comrades rather than strangers, acceptance rather than scorn.

"But what about Sakura-chan?" One insidious, traitorous part of his brain whispered. "What about showing up to the Teme?" It continued. "What about showing them all how awesome you truly are? ANBU are the shadows and you won't get to do that if you join."

Naruto, who had been frozen silent for two minutes now flailed suddenly, startling the two older ninja slightly and palmed his face with both his hand before dragging them down. Cheeks and lower eyelids stretched downward, Naruto sighed. Why was it so complicated to make such a simple decision? The question was simple, yes or no. At a loss, the blond decided to use an old trick of his he used for complex fuinjutsu problems: reformulate the question to baser, simpler elements.

Did he want to have a mask, wear a coat, and be an all-around awesome ninja? Hell yes! Naruto nodded. Good. Was anything else of consequence? Absolutely not! The blond smiled.

His resolve finally made, Naruto looked back up at the Hokage first, then at Dragon second. "I accept," said the boy, his voice firm and his gaze set.

Hiruzen sighed imperceptibly at his surrogate grandson's decision. Whatever happened next was outside of his control; Naruto would either make the cut or break. The Hokage had nary a doubt the blond would make it but worrying about the younglings is the prerogative of the elders.

Dragon was content to simply nod once to signify he had heard the boy and cleared his voice. "Remove your headband, Uzumaki-san."

Blue eyes wavered with confusion. "What?"

"Simply remove your headband, Naruto." The old Kage said. Naruto mutely obeyed.

"Good. Naruto Uzumaki," began Dragon solemnly, "this is your very last opportunity to refuse this headband and the service as a shinobi of the leaf and walk away. Do you wish to do so?"

That was an easy answer to give. "No, Dragon-sama!"

"Naruto Uzumaki, do you swear to give your sweat, your blood, and your life if necessary to defend Konoha and its interests?" Dragon began, his distorted baritone suddenly rolling in thunderous, powerful waves, rooting the boy in his chair.

"Do you swear to honor the Will of Fire, live by its precepts, and die in its defense? Do you swear to show bravery in adversity, resolve in duty, steadfastness in death?" The Hokage continued; his voice was calmer but distinctly clear for Naruto to hear, and just as powerful.

"Do you swear allegiance to the Hokage, obedience to your officer, but above all, do you swear loyalty towards your comrades?" Dragon thundered behind his mask, starring the blond boy down.

Naruto hesitated the fraction of a second before he jumped out of his chair, his blood boiling. "I swear it, 'ttebayo!"

A second later, the blond sputtered, his face donning a crimson shade, as he realized his verbal tick had kicked in with a vengeance. The Hokage chuckled and even Dragon snorted. Maybe.

With mirth in his voice, the ANBU commander spoke again. "Then fasten your hitai-ite, Naruto Uzumaki, and may it be a reminder of your oath to Konoha."

Naruto nodded furiously before he donned the headband, his hands fumbling a bit from the adrenaline. Once it was secure around his forehead, the blond looked up.

"I'm a ninja now," Naruto said with a smile, his voice filled with peaceful, assured confidence. It was not boastful promise, nor was it a questioning statement. After the oath he had just taken, there was no doubt Naruto was a shinobi.

"Indeed," confirmed Dragon. Silence fell for a few seconds in the office before the man fished a piece of paper from the depth of his cloak. "Now, if you're still interested about ANBU, sign that please." The commander deadpanned.

A sweatdrop formed on Naruto's brow. Paperwork and wavers, he had called it.

* * *

The waver had promptly disappeared after Naruto had signed it. It was basically a contract stipulating that for the next seven years, the blond was to serve and only death or crippling injury would free him. Renewable. It also classified his enrollment as an A-rank secret, one even Naruto himself could not divulge without his officer's authorization. Dragon had informed him they would masquerade his absent from the regular rooster by assigning him a fake desk job.

More importantly, being in ANBU meant two things. First, his salary was more money in a month then he had ever received. Second, he had official authority over any genin. Dragon was quick to kill his joy with the threat of very severe punishment were he to abuse his rank.

Suddenly, the Hokage waved and Naruto saw four shadows materialize in a queue, the first opening the door, the four ANBU spilling outside the office and the door closing. The blond turned toward the Hokage as the old man coughed in his hand.

"Yesterday, Dragon revealed… A piece of sensitive information."

Naruto stiffened and nodded. The boy knew the old man was talking about his mother. Choosing to stay silent, Naruto simply waited. He was tired of asking only to receive no answer; if the Hokage had to tell him something, he would tell him. The boy leveled a stare at the old man he called "Grandpa" and frowned.

Hiruzen fidgeted. He had hoped to never see this gaze again, as horrible as it sounded. But of course, Naruto had inherited from his father much more than his look. The Hokage internally shuddered as two piercing, all-seeing blue eyes looked at his soul, ready to spot the lies and the deceit. It was the same look Hiruzen's successor, and unfortunately, predecessor, had when he was ready to call pretty much anyone on their bullshit. Taking a deep breath, the Kage steeled himself.

"Your mother…" Hiruzen began, failing to find the words. "Your mother was an amazing woman."

The Hokage exhaled his relief when a small smile blossomed on Naruto's tightly locked lips.

"She was a surviving member of the Uzumaki clan, now extinct. She came here to be the second jinchuriki of the Kyuubi."

"Second? I'm the third?" Naruto interrupted in surprise.

Hiruzen nodded. "Yes. It's quite a long story…"

"I personally have the time, Hokage-sama," answered Naruto dryly. No way the old man was going to weasel his way out of this.

The Hokage sighed. "Very well. When Madara Uchiha turned against the Leaf, he found a way to control the Kyuubi. Shodaime faced the traitor and his beast and contained both thanks to his Mokuton. But the Bijuu was unstoppable ultimately and Mito Uzumaki sealed the rampaging fox inside her."

Hiruzen stopped as he saw Naruto silently mouth "Mito Uzumaki" as if tasting the flavor of the name of a member of his clan. A long-deceased member of his ruined clan.

"When Mito-sama's old age caught up to her, she requested a girl be sent to her to host the beast that her death would free. It was your mother, Kushina Uzumaki."

The smile on Naruto's face disappeared and was replaced by a worried scowl.

"Her status of jinchuriki was a secret and she had a perfectly normal life if not for a few bullies who quickly learned their place," continued the Kage, a faraway look in his eyes and a small smile tugging at his lips. "Your mother was quite a hot-blooded girl. You have her temper and her wits, Naruto."

The smile returned to the power of ten, lightening the office like a thousand watts light bulb.

"Yes, she was quite spirited-"

"What did she look like, Jiji?" Naruto asked excitedly, his mind too absorbed by the fact he had a mother to fuel the anger and the possible distrust he was supposed to feel at the Hokage.

Hiruzen allowed himself a relieved smile. Maybe Dragon was right, after all. He needed to trust Naruto. "She had red hair, a sign of the Uzumaki clan and her eyes were a very peculiar mix of blue and purple. She really was a beautiful woman and a deadly kunoichi. She gained a fearsome reputation by fighting against Kumo, who named her Habanero."

Somehow, the smile Naruto sported grew larger and wider, splitting his face in half and shutting his eyes. The boy basked in the knowledge had not only a mother but an awesome mother. A thought erased the smile and the light it brought dimmed.

"Did… Did she love me?" The boy asked shyly, his conclusion from the previous discussion still at the forefront of his mind.

And when the Hokage spoke, Naruto knew, at this instant, that his grandfather wasn't lying.

"Oh Naruto, she adored you. You weren't even there and you were already her world," whispered Hiruzen.

Tears pearled at the edge of Naruto's eyes and the boy blinked to chase them but they kept coming. The blond cared mildly; his mind was too preoccupied with the feeling that was tearing and rending his heart in two. It hurt as nothing had ever hurt him and yet there was a pleasant warmth to it. His breath turned ragged and his throat refused to allow air to pass. His mother loved him. Cries of anguish, fear, but above all relief, escaped the blond like water a broken dam. He had so feared she hated him. His mother loved him. Sobs racked his body, as he relived the nightmares of a faceless woman leaving him to the wolves. His mother. He had entertained the thought that he had been born from nothing, the spawn of a demon, the just victim of the village's hate.

He had not noticed when but when his last tears were spilled, Naruto found himself in the arms of the Hokage. The old man had engulfed him in a hug like he had done so many times so long ago when Naruto had been smaller and younger and crying for the exact same reasons.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Whispered the boy, too exhausted to muster any anger.

The robes of his grandfather were warm and comfortable and Naruto decided he deserved the hug more than the Hokage deserved his anger. The boy felt the old man wince at his question.

"I never asked much Jiji, so why didn't you tell me?" Naruto insisted, disentangling himself from the long sleeves and wiping his nose and watery eyes on his own jumpsuit.

Hiruzen sighed. He knew his excuse was flimsy at best but he had only that. "Your mother… Made a lot of enemies. The Kyuubi rampage on the day of your birth was not an accident, Naruto, it was an attack." The Hokage rubbed his eyes before raising his hand, silencing Naruto's question. "We don't know who or what but the reality is that Konoha was in shambles, our forces had taken the biggest hit since the war, and I did not trust my own ANBU to keep anything secret."

Naruto's eyes widened and the flames of his anger were rekindled. "So outing me as the jinchuriki was fine but telling me about my mother was not?" Exclaimed the blond in disbelief and mounting fury. Someone had attacked his mother, rather obviously to free the beast, and they had done that despite her status being a secret but outing him was okay. "Makes perfect sense," thought Naruto angrily.

"I… I had to be sure you'd keep it a secret. You were too young and then… You became a blabbermouth." defended Hiruzen feebly.

The blond stared at the old man in mute anger. His mouth opened and closed, several times, as if words could not express what he truly wanted to say. Naruto's arms flailed randomly for a second. He was at a loss.

"Am I… Do I look that retarded to you?" Naruto asked eventually, his head the picture perfect of incredulity.

"N-no! Of course n-"

"Then why didn't you tell me?!" Roared the blond. "Your mother had enemies, keep it a secret 'cause it's dangerous, got it!" Naruto parroted in an admittedly good imitation of the Hokage, if it weren't for the barely contained anger in his tone. "Was that too complicated, 'ttebayo!?"

Hiruzen could only hang his head in shame. Naruto was definitely angry at him and he was rightfully so. The Hokage could order the blond, now one of his ninja, to shut up, he could say he did not have to justify his decisions, he could throw a tantrum unbefitting of his age. But all that would finish to alienate the boy and for reasons both personal and political, he could absolutely not afford that. Dragon was right. Hiruzen had to face his mistakes and assume them, as disagreeable as it was.

The Hokage looked up to see Naruto in a posture eerily reminiscent of his mother. His arms were crossed on his chest and his weight was on his left foot, while the right one was impatiently tapping the floor. But it was the piercing blue eyes that made Hiruzen felt like a child who was being scolded.

"So?"

Hiruzen sagged in his chair. "I have no excuse."

"Urg, of course you don't, 'ttebayo!" Naruto said, throwing his hands in the air and pacing around his chair, intent on digging a trench on the wooden floor.

"I am sorry," muttered the Kage. "So very sorry. I don't know how to apologize but if there is a way, I'd like to."

Naruto stopped pacing, stared hard at the defeated old man sitting in a heap in his chair, threw his arms in the air again and exclaimed "Urg, of course you are!" before resuming his pacing.

The blond kept at it for five full minutes, arms flailing wildly and randomly and muttering what was probably curse words under his breath. Hiruzen could swear smoke was coming out of the boy's ears. One or two times, the boy allowed himself to furiously kick the bookshelf, hard enough to make it tremble. When angry, magmatic chakra started to roll off the boy in waves in a dark, stormy aura, Hiruzen started to sweat, wondering if was to going to have to put the boy under.

Abruptly, Naruto stopped and faced the older man. "How do I even know what you said is the truth?" The blond asked with disdain in his voice. "You lied to me for twelve years, what's stopping you now?"

Hiruzen thought his last hour had come when his heart stopped at the accusation. It was Dragon who came to his rescue.

"I can attest on my honor, Uzumaki-san, that Hiruzen told you the truth," offered the ANBU.

Naruto whirled around. "On your honor as a trained spy, thief, and assassin?" The boy asked, one eyebrow raised.

"Fair point but you're a shinobi now and I believe you've heard of honor among thieves?"

The boy glared at the impassive mask of the ANBU for a minute, doing his best to make the man sweat.

"I'm quite sure we'll find a picture," Dragon added eventually.

Naruto thought. Lying now would be probably too much trouble for the two old men. And if they were lying, it was an incredibly complex lie that would soon crumble under its own weight.

"Tch, fine!" spat the whiskered blond before he resumed his digging work. Again, the stormy aura spilled forth and for five more minutes, Naruto paced and paced, muttering under his breath.

Suddenly, the boy stopped, whirled around and pointed an accusing finger at the Hokage, the maelstrom like intent all but a fleeting memory.

"I'm angry Jiji! You're the Hokage and I can't have a beef with the Hokage but I want you to know I'm mad at my grandpa!" The blond exclaimed, waving his finger like he was conducting some invisible orchestra.

Naruto then sighed and plopped back down on his chair and scowled at his commander in chief and surrogate grandfather. "You owe me. So. Much. Ramen."

Hiruzen had to stifle a laugh and thanked Fire the boy took his ability to hold a grudge from his mother. Intense, scathing, damage-inducing, but short. And always ready to forgive, given enough time and ramen. The world did not deserve the Uzumaki. Now all that was required of him was to find a small fortune paying for noodles.

"And a jutsu," added Naruto, tearing the Hokage from his thoughts. "Lots and lots of ramens and a jutsu."

The blond closed his eyes and breathed deeply before exhaling the longest sigh of his life.

"I'm tired and I don't really want to get mad again," began the blond carefully. "Will I be mad if I ask about my dad?"

Hiruzen started, considered lying, made and discarded plans, threw a discreet glance at Dragon, who simply shrugged -bastard- and sighed. "You'll be terribly mad." The Hokage simply said, internally cringing. He simply hoped ramen and a jutsu would be enough to appease his anger for this.

Naruto yet again threw his arms in the air in exasperation. "Urg, of course I'll be!" The blond stood and shook his head. "Well, not today then. I need to blow steam off first. I'll go destroy a punching post, Jiji, and you'll pay for it. Training ground three."

The blond whirled again, this time facing the door, and marched forth, intent on making good on his promise, before a hand fell on his shoulder. The boy looked at Dragon.

"When you are done "blowing off steam", gather your belongings and be ready to move out. Tomorrow morning you get a new flat and you begin a new life."

The reality of his enrollment in ANBU came crashing down on Naruto, momentarily stifling the flames of his anger. The boy nodded once and Dragon released the vice-like grip on Naruto's shoulder. The blond lost no time and stormed out of the office.

Dragon looked at the small room. The boy had apparently not noticed but he had leaked chakra. Lots and lots of chakra. His short, spiky locks had gathered to form two large appendages reminiscent of a rabbit's ears. Much like the ears of the Kyuubi. But it had not stopped with just that. The tempest of chakra had wrecked actual havok in the office. Books were strewn haphazardly on the floor, the floorboards where the boy had walked were scorched, and the chair he kept sitting on was ready to be dumped.

Hiruzen sighed. "We flirted with catastrophe here."

Dragon shrugged. "You did." The ANBU coughed and covered the curse his oldest friend fired at him. "So, was that so difficult?"

The Hokage massaged his eyes. "Less than I feared, more than I wanted."

"We rarely get what we want, Hiruzen. Only-"

"What we deserve. I know Dragon, I know. I just wish I had never sown that kind of seed in the first place."

"We all do at least once, Hiruzen, whether by design or not."

* * *

Naruto had run quickly to his destination and was now facing a wooden post. First his grandfather had lied to him about not knowing who is parents were. Then, he had a very feeble explanation for hiding the truth for the first few years of Naruto's life. And then he had simply no excuse for the past few years. Or rather he had a very hurtful excuse that amounted to "I did not trust you. I thought you were too stupid to be trusted with a secret."

The boy punched the wooden post with a vengeance and bark flew everywhere. His skin split open and bled but it was of no consequence for the blond boy. He healed far too fast for it to be a problem after all.

Naruto was not angry because of that, no, or at least only partially. Naruto was angry because when his grandfather had admitted to not actually having any valid explanation to support the need for the lie, had admitted he simply did not want to face the lie he had created. And that was not acceptable.

Naruto had been told to ignore the scorn, to smile at the anger, to laugh at the fear, to make do with the neglect, to endure the hate. Naruto had done all that and then some but when it had been the Hokage's turn to face his lie, Naruto's grandfather had turned tail and fled. The courage Hiruzen expected from Naruto, he did not even possess it himself.

The boy kicked at the training post, side-stepped, threw a punch, withdrew only to step in again with an elbow strike. Pieces of bark and blood were flying everywhere but Naruto did not care. The pain was keeping part of his mind busy and allowed the blond to work through his anger.

Naruto was angry but above all, he was disappointed. Was that all the Hokage, the guardian of the Leaf, amounted to? An old man who would sooner dig deeper and plant his head in the ground than admit to his mistakes and face the anger of a scorned twelve years old?

The boy sighed and halted his self destructing venting. The training post showed deep, barkless, fist impacts. The blond's hand were bleeding despite the calluses.

Was it worth it to stay angry? What for? Being angry was unpleasant, exhausting, and accomplished nothing ultimately. Being angry at something was akin to dwelling on it. Naruto shook his head. Naruto Uzumaki did not dwell on things, it was not his way. But doubt would stay at the forefront of his mind. He had no idea of the extent of the web of lies the Hokage had weaved around him, so Naruto would not trust so blindly again. And it would go for anyone.

At least there was a lesson in all this debacle: a man could be old, wise, and a war veteran, at the end of the day, he was still a man. They weren't more trustworthy, they weren't above making mistakes, and they weren't necessarily brave.

* * *

**A/N: I hope you enjoyed. I'm on a roll apparently. Like any fanfic author, I feed on reviews, so why not leave one?**


	3. Chapter 3 Konoha

**A/N: Alright, first of all, thank you all for the response. It's been overwhelming and overwhelmingly positive. I was like "yeah gonna try my hand at that" and bam! So again thank you all. Second of all, shout out to theriku260 who writes "From Academy to ANBU", which was one of the inspiration for this. Go visit her story. Thirdly, I have a poll up on my profile. The question is, do I use Japanese or English for military ranks? Yeah, everyone can't be taishou (which means general by the way, according to the Wikipedia article on the "ranks in the imperial Japanese army"). Lastly, I hope you enjoy reading this just as much as enjoyed writing it.**

* * *

When Naruto left the training ground and went back to his rundown flat, his knuckles long healed, two cardboard boxes were waiting for him outside his door. One was labeled "keep" and had a folded piece of paper inside, the other was marked "throw".

Obviously, for his relocation, Naruto deduced quickly.

The blond took the piece of paper and read the message. "Keep only what you absolutely want to keep. Discard the rest, especially whatever is orange. Dragon."

Naruto sighed. It was not like orange was his favorite color or anything and he did not pride himself as a fashion connoisseur but people dissing the orange so gratuitously was unacceptable. Maybe he still had some of this superb orange dye with glitter. The blond smirked; that would do perfectly and Dragon would come to love orange. Or learn to live with it at least. His smirk turned to a mischievous grin and Naruto rubbed his hands. He had a plan forming already.

ANBU or not, he was going to have his fun.

Satisfied with his decision, the blond turned to unlock his door to find it open. Immediately, his brow rose along with his guard. A very untalented thief was out; Naruto had nothing worth stealing. An unannounced visitor would have waited outside for him. The blond entered his hallway carefully, all senses in high alert. Until he heard a slurping sound he was awfully familiar with. The boy sprinted toward his small kitchen-living room.

"Hey, whoever you are you don't touch… My… Ramens?"

Seated around his table were three Naruto replicas slurping on Naruto's emergency cup ramens.

"'llo boss!" One exclaimed in-between two mouthfuls.

"What do you three think you're doing?!" Roared Naruto in response.

The three startled shadow clones all turned to the original.

"Hum… Eating ramens?"

Naruto facepalmed. "You're clones! You don't need to eat!"

"How'd you know that? And ramen is good!" retorted one clone and his tone brooked no argument.

"Yeah, boss! And look how long we lasted! We're due some ramens!"

Naruto sputtered and flailed his arms around before he sighed. What did one answer to that? The original blond was rubbing the back of his head when one fact hit him. "How are you even inside?"

"Well, we have the keys of course," answered one clone in a deadpan tone.

Naruto frowned. "Oy, I'm not kidding. If you broke the lock-"

"Nah boss, we have the keys," insisted one, fishing for something inside his pocket and dangling in front of him what was indeed keys. "We're copies remember?"

"Yeah, you're copies of… Me… Wait a second!" exclaimed the original boy, his eyes wide in amazement.

Naruto darted to the practice target hanging on his wall and wrenched a kunai out. Taking the knife in a reverse grip, the boy crossed his fingers and molded some chakra.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

In a now familiar poof of smoke, a fifth Naruto holding a kunai in the same position as the original appeared. Wide-eyed, the boy took the kunai from his clone's hand, letting the real fall to the floor, and nicked the tip of his index finger with the knife replica.

"Holy Flame."

Naruto turned to his three ramen-eating replicas. "This jutsu… Is amazing, 'ttebayo." The blond whispered excitedly. The three clones respectively nodded, shrugged, and slurped noodles.

Suddenly, Naruto flipped the cloned kunai and hurled it toward his target. The knife bit in the wooden plank like any normal knife before poofing out in smoke, leaving a very real cut behind. Jaw slack, he turned again towards his clones.

"So I don't copy only myself but what I carry?"

The four clones made a show of thinking for a few seconds.

"Well, isn't that obvious boss? I mean, we appear with clothes," supplied the most recently created clone.

"Yeah well, that's because I pictured you all wearing some. I didn't want to beat Mizuki-teme naked," retorted the original.

All four clones rubbed the back of their head, chuckling in an eery chorus. That would have been very, very embarrassing.

The original blond watched as his four him chuckled in a synchronized manner. If it had been anyone else but him, he would have definitely been weirded out. Naruto shook his head. He had to test the limit of the copy. He had to test the ability to copy itself, in fact. What if he could duplicate only a kunai for example? That'd be priceless on a mission if supplies were to run low. Or just simply to make sure supplies would never ever run low in the first place. The boy nodded; he needed to re-open his manual on jutsu theory (the only theory book he would ever willingly open, with the one on sealing) and find some more advanced material. The Academy handbook was desperately thin.

That would be the "then", it was time for the "now". Naruto ignored the fact his fourth clone was fixing himself a cup of instant ramen, the bastard, and turned to the three he had sent on a mission. The Hokage had revealed some stuff but the boy was ready to bet there was more.

"So, what did you find? About mom."

The clones looked at each other and eventually one rose from his chair.

"You sent me to the Archives," said the clone before falling silent.

Naruto waited but the clone was not speaking. "And?"

"And nothing boss. Nothing in what's accessible to a genin anyway. And before you ask, there are no other Uzumaki files in the Public Archives."

The blond muffled a curse and sighed. The old man had told him his mother had many enemies and had been a jinchuriki before him but what could necessitate burying her identification file? People in Konoha, civilians and ninjas alike, were registered and had a file recording various information deemed important. Their birth, or the date of their move in, their graduation from the Academy if it happened, their wedding and their death were among the things that were noted. One could access the files, provided they had a valid reason. Looking for a family member was an acceptable request.

But some files were considered too important to be publicly accessible and required signed permission from the Hokage Tower after a case study.

The blond facepalmed. He hadn't thought his mother was that much of a secret. Sliding his hand down his face, Naruto rested cupped his chin and thought. The boy jerked his head up suddenly.

"You didn't think about looking for our own file, did you?"

With a bit of luck, if Naruto had reached this conclusion, his clone had done the same. To his dismay, the clone shook his head. He hadn't.

"I did but there is nothing either."

He had. Naruto sighed as his dismay increased just as the reason for it changed. He couldn't even access his own file. Which, as far as he knew, was illegal. Fire Country had laws, 'ttebayo!

Except if his file was deemed an S-ranked secret. A state secret, one confirmed by the Daimyo himself. The kind of secret only the Hokage or the Daimyo could give access to. Naruto groaned. His life was a pile of secrets and until yesterday he hadn't been aware of it.

Or his file and his mother's were lost during the Kyuubi attack but Naruto doubted that, for some reason. His mother's, that would have been believable but his? Simply impossible, as the file, if it existed, would have been created simply after the attack. And it would have been too easy and his life apparently didn't do easy.

The boy wondered for a second if Dragon was in trouble for revealing the name of his mother. Considering the ANBU was still alive today, he was probably fine. Naruto was grateful for the tidbit of knowledge and did not want the guy, whoever was under the mask, to be punished for it.

Maybe Naruto would not dye Dragon's stuff in glittering orange, after all.

The boy focused on his two other clones. "And the library?"

One of the clones shrugged. "Not much on the Uzumaki clan. For all intent and purpose, it doesn't exist anymore. They ruled over a place called Uzushiogakure, a small village, no idea where it is. They were known for their red hair and their fuinjutsu. The crest on Konoha's flak jackets is theirs."

"Red hair," muttered Naruto. "It matches with what the old man told me." The boy rubbed his eyelids when another thought hit him. "Why don't we have red hair?" The boy asked his clones. Had the old man lied to him, again?

"'Cause our dad was blond and we got it from him?"

The boy mulled over his clone's answer. "Possible. Urgh, so much secrecy, I don't even know if they are worth uncovering," sighed the blond, mildly annoyed.

Was it worth it? Good question after all. His parents were dead if the old Kage were to be believed. His mother almost certainly was, at least. So what good did knowing about them do? The boy had no idea if he had any kind of legacy to uphold. Probably, given the number of secrets, it was buried under but was it a legacy he would want to uphold anyway? Being Kumo's boogeyman did sound cool but Naruto wasn't sure it was supposed to be a goal in life.

As I side thought, Naruto wondered for a second if his mom had left him some money behind but dismissed it. If the Hokage had taken twelve years to begrudgingly given him her name, it would take another twelve years before Naruto would see the money, if there was any.

So what good did knowing do? Not much. And there were many things the boy wasn't sure he wanted to know. Not knowing was hurtful but knowing for sure would not necessarily help. Not if the truth was horrible. After all, Naruto still had no idea if his parents had sacrificed him willingly or not to be a jinchuriki. His grandfather's outcry at the idea that the fourth had killed them kind of disproved the theory but the other was possible.

His mother supposedly loved him. Was he the jinchuriki only because he was the son of one? Maybe the clan heirs were not a viable alternative? What did holding a Bijuu even mean and entail anyway? Naruto sighed. Was there a choice to begin with?

And why, by the Flame, had his status been revealed? If the Kyuubi rampage was a premeditated attack, why was the Hokage thinking about when he revealed Naruto was a jinchuriki? That was just asking for someone else to attack again, in a time of grief and uncertainty at that. Naruto's eyes widened; was he a bait? Did he even contain the beast?

Or he did and his parent simply had been people whose faith in the village had been complete. Complete and blind. Much like the Fourth's and his grandfather's had been before the villagers revealed they were assholes, treating one innocent little child who bore a demon inside him like the Plague. Even if said child had no say in the matter.

Naruto grabbed the original kunai he had let fall on his floor and hurled it at his target practice. The knife split the wood and buried itself in the wall behind. The blond was breathing raggedly. He did not want to be angry but it did not mean he was not. To think he had longed for their acknowledgment. To think he still longed for it, in some way or another.

The blond sat back down on his sofa and exhaled before he breathed in deeply, holding the air inside his lungs, puffing his cheeks. Losing himself in conjectures was useless and didn't help. Especially considering the current state of his temper.

But what if-

"Argh! Curiosity is definitely the worst of humanity's flaw!" Screamed the blond suddenly, startling the "youngest" clone.

The three oldest only nodded, apparently not surprised, features set in a picture of seriousness. "Yup, we came to the same conclusion," offered one.

"Yeah, yeah, finish your ramen and dispel," Naruto answered, waving his hand at them.

"E'en me?" asked the youngest, in-between noodles.

"Especially you."

The four clones nodded in unison and they hurriedly finished their ramens before dispelling. Naruto felt his left eye twitch and a weird pain throbbed behind his skull for a second. The blond took a moment to consider the sudden headache. He had noticed the same thing happening after dispelling the little army of clones he had created to tenderize Mizuki. The pain had been head splitting then and lasted for maybe a minute or two, he wasn't sure. He had ignored it because he was more worried about Iruka's wounds

Just now, the pain had been mild and it had already disappeared. Dispelling shadow clone somehow caused a headache, with intensity and duration related to the number of clones. Naruto nodded and took a mental note of it. He had to test it. Or ask about it even. With a bit of chance, he wasn't the only one who knew the jutsu.

Or he was because it was kind of supposed to be a forbidden technique. Naruto frowned. He had to ask his grandfather. He was loath to ask anything from the old man right now but if someone knew about the shadow clone, it was The Professor.

He'd still ask his future ANBU colleagues first.

Naruto shook his head and rose from his couch. Asking himself questions he did not have the answers to in an exercise of pointlessness could wait. Right now, he had two boxes to fill.

The sorting was quick; Naruto's possessions could be summarized to a pair of green goggles, a toad-shaped purse, his personal notebook about fuinjutsu, and a collection of orange jumpsuits plus various other shirt and shorts he rarely wore nowadays. Most of the clothes were too small for him anyway.

With a heart-wrenching sigh, the blond dumped his jumpsuits in the biggest box of the two. The one labeled "throw". The boy cried fake tears for a minute in remembrance of his trusty, comfortable, warm during winter cool during summer, all-around awesome orange garments. He then proceeded to try and see which shirts and pants were still fitting. ANBU or not, he'd probably need some clothes for civilian life.

After maybe ten minutes, Naruto was done with playing fashionista and was wearing a fresh green, short sleeved shirt and a pair of cream colored pants. The blond observed himself in his bathroom mirror for a few seconds.

Maybe the orange jumpsuit did do him a disservice, after all.

With some civilian clothes neatly folded and away in the "keep" box with his goggles, his trusty nightcap, and his fuinjutsu notebook, the boy the gathered the "rest". His soap, towels, pajamas, his Academy manuals, with which had had no idea what to do, and everything he had accumulated over the years, and it did not account to much, found its way in the "throw" box. Honestly, if ANBU was providing him with what he needed, there was no reason to keep bargain price stuff. Especially his towels, they were terrible: old, rough, and itchy; he really didn't like them.

Naruto sighed at the sight of his empty flat. It was, hopefully at least, his last night he'd ever spend here.

"New job, new me." The boy chuckled tentatively.

It felt dry on his tongue and bitter in his mouth. He had not been happy in this rundown apartment but it was his apartment still. He had lived here for nearly as long as he cared to remember because he did not care to remember what came before. Living here was unpleasant but it was also freedom. A lonely kind of freedom, the kind of freedom which was absolute, without limit, and paid in full. No one to tell him when to go to bed, no one to tell him to do his homework, no one to tell how to eat properly, no one to explain his own body to him, no one to answer his questions. Naruto had had to make do, somehow.

Hopefully, the next place would have a little less freedom if it meant it was a little less lonely.

The boy shook his head and wiped from his eyes the tears he refused to shed. He had no time for such depressing thoughts. Dwelling on them would not do him any good and would not change anything anyway. Naruto balled his fists and stretched his face in a smile. He was joining ANBU. He was going to become an awesome ninja. He was going to be okay.

* * *

"You called for me, taishou."

The individual who had just spoken was cloaked and masked, like all his peer. The mask he was wearing was in the shape of a tiger. The eye holes were underlined in red, it had two claw-like whiskers on each side, a crescent around the left eye and a flame under the right one, all in the same red color. Various other markings, of different colors, were also visible. Whoever was hiding behind the mask was a member of the third company, the buntaichou of an ANBU squad, a ninjutsu and close-combat specialist, and a veteran of many campaigns.

"I did Tiger," answered Dragon from behind his desk. "Sit." The shadow added, designating a chair.

Wordlessly, the operative obeyed and settled in front of his commander.

"Your squad has been lacking a member for a while now, Tiger."

The soldier nodded. There was no need for an answer, apart from what politeness dictated, so the ninja went for a terse "indeed".

"I do believe I have a potential recruit for you."

The silent operative stood still for a second before he nodded again and inched forward slightly. Normally, recruits were introduced to their potential squad leader by the company's zentaichou. For the commander of all ANBU to introduce the recruit directly was highly unusual. Not unheard of though.

"His name is Naruto Uzumaki," said Dragon. "You might have heard of him." The commander added with mirth in his voice.

Tiger nodded. Everyone and their mother knew Naruto Uzumaki. The ANBUs were never tasked with catching the brat, it did not mean they did not know or hear of his exploits. Some of his traps were actually frequently discussed by the members of the "Recluse", as they apparently were downward vicious. Tiger had never interacted with the boy obviously and he personally had no opinion on him.

"You know what he is, of course."

The operative nodded once again. Everyone and their aunts, but not their children, knew Naruto Uzumaki was the jinchuriki. Which was strange, as jinchuriki were supposed to be trump cards and final weapons in wartime. Tiger shrugged internally; it had been revealed long ago and it was not his place to question the decision of the higher-ups. Tiger and his squad had had their fair share of the "keeping individual Uzumaki safe" kind of missions.

"If I may, commander?" Asked the operative in a distorted monotone.

"Go ahead."

"What prompted his scouting?"

"The facts he has quite the potential. He was the one responsible for the break-in and the momentaneous disappearance of the Forbidden Scroll."

Tiger rose his brow discreetly, not that anyone would notice given his mask, and kept himself from whistling. The boy was behind the breaking? It was impressive. Impressive but not enough. The kid was barely genin. Not to mention he had kind of stolen the Forbidden Scroll.

"He is no traitor, I can assure you." Dragon said as if reading the mind of his soldier. "In fact, he even helped uncover and apprehend one."

Alright, for a not even genin that was definitely interesting.

"And he learned the Shadow Clone Jutsu in less than an hour."

"I'm sorry?" asked Tiger slowly, his tone measured but with an undercut of skepticism. It seemed his earing was failing him.

"You heard me well, Tiger. He learned the Shadow Clones in an hour. He used self-developed fuinjutsu-based genjutsu to conceal himself during his break in, got in in the most insane way possible without using a shred of his chakra, and helped us catch a traitor. That alone is worthy of interest. But I've had the boy monitored for a while now and I can vouch for his potential." Dragon explained.

The commander joined his fingers in front of him and rested his elbows on his desk.

"You do not lead twenty chunin on a three hours chase and virtually kill seventeen of them by luck alone, Tiger."

"Virtual kill?"

"That is how we count the victims of those who fall in his traps during his pranks. Considering some chunin trigger multiple traps, it's not even an accurate measure. If those traps weren't harmless, we would have a shortage of shinobi."

"The chunin could trigger the traps knowing full well they don't risk anything," remarked the operative.

"No. Those traps, while not lethal, are nasty and they damage pride, clothes, and credibility. If the chunin could avoid them, they would."

"Could it mean some of our chunin are in dire need of remedial lessons?"

"That's not it either. We have observed and recorded the boy's process for setting traps and it's creative and vicious. He does not create a funnel that would easily be avoidable, no. He prepares a metaphorical minefield for his pursuers. And his traps are very elaborate. My observer reported the boy setting up traps within traps within traps. He sometimes willingly triggers the first layer, lulling his opponent into thinking that's all there is and they fall for the second layer. And once they are out, the third layer activates."

Tiger stayed silent for a second at the report. "He does sound promising," allowed the operative. "But it takes more to be ANBU."

"He is a hard worker, willing to learn, and extremely dedicated when interested. He just needs a guiding hand and someone to enforce discipline and control."

"And you would have that someone be me."

"You and your team, yes. For more reasons than one." Dragon said, his tone surprisingly gentle despite the distortion effect. "A team isn't complete without its fourth member."

"I'm at your command, Dragon-taishou, but my teammates will probably voice a complaint."

"It will be duly noted and ignored. Naruto Uzumaki will be treated like any recruit and if the boy does not make the cut, he will be outed."

"Very well, taishou. When do we meet him?"

"I will bring him to you tomorrow at the beginning of the first rotation."

"Hai. By your leave?"

"Dismissed."

The operator rose without a sound and exited the small office, leaving his commanding officer to his thoughts.

* * *

Naruto was walking around aimlessly in Konoha. Above him, the sky was bright blue with nary a cloud to shield the people from a brightly shining sun. The streets were full of people doing people stuff; what that was exactly, Naruto had no idea. What did the people out in the streets do? Didn't they have a job to be at? Chunin on patrol and older teams of genin doing chores, the blond understood but the civilians?

Graduation took place in April, a week or so after the beginning of spring, just so newly minted genin team could learn the meaning of hard work, under the rising temperatures of Fire Country's warm spring and suffocating summer, by doing D-ranked missions. The boy knew that because Iruka had told him once, in front of a bowl of ramen, that it was the hazing process reserved to genin. Also, it was explained during one of the Academy class, the one on missions, or so Naruto remembered. Apparently, D-ranked missions did serve a multitude of purposes but the blue-eyed boy had stopped listening after Iruka had said "painting fences".

The blond had to admit, he was kinda glad he was joining the ANBU. It meant no D-ranked missions in hot and humid weather; at least Naruto hoped it did.

The boy did not know what to do. It was three in the afternoon, maybe four and Naruto had no idea how he was supposed to keep himself busy. He had to admit that excitement was slowly rising within him and alongside it, so was anxiety.

Was he going to make the cut? Tch, Of course he was, 'ttebayo! Whatever test they would throw at him, he would pass, with flying color to boot.

"Just like you flunked the Academy exam three times," whispered all too sweetly a traitorous part of his mind.

Naruto shook his head. No way he was going to flunk anything. He was Naruto Uzumaki and he was awesome.

The words of Dragon rung in his head. "A ninja needs humility". The boy's head sunk before it shot up just as quick and he grinned. Naruto Uzumaki was relatively awesome then. And there was no way the ANBU test would be as stupid as the Academy one anyway.

"It will be many times harder," asserted the annoying little voice in his head.

Naruto sighed before he pumped his fist. Who was to say there was a test in the first place? They were interested in him because he had "talent" and "hard work"; surely whatever he would be put through would take that into account. It would simply make no sense otherwise. Reassured and with a spring in his gait, Naruto resumed his walk. Which was still very much aimless. It was at this moment his stomach growled. Very loudly.

Naruto looked down and grinned sheepishly, his right hand rubbing the back of his scalp. He had had one measly cup of instant ramen before meeting with the Hokage and Dragon, and said meeting had been exhausting. Added to that was the fact Naruto had gone to punch a training post for an hour and the blond was understandingly famished. It was time to pay a visit to his favorite place in Konoha.

"Here I come Ichiraku!"

The blond sped through the labyrinth formed by Konoha's streets and ended up twenty minutes later in front of a little, unassuming, noodle bar. Ichiraku's Ramen was inscribed in large red kanji on the flaps that half covered the entrance. There was a big paper lantern outside, greeting the nightly visitors with its warm light, lettered with the kanjis for "one" and "comfort". Ichiraku.

Naruto lifted one flap and greeted his two favorite persons in the world. "Hey Teuchi-oji, hey Ayame-nee!"

A man in his fifties with a fleeting smile, his eyes almost closed, and exuding bonhomie, turned to greet the enthusiastic blond. "Hello, Naruto! It's been a time!"

"A time", meaning Naruto hadn't visited for something like a week. The boy rubbed his scalp. "Eh eh, yeah, had to work for my exam, Teuchi-oji."

"Oh yeah, that's right! How'd it go?" asked the kindly chef.

Naruto hesitated a second before he remembered everything was a secret and settled for a short but efficient answer that would not have his first and only ramen provider executed.

"I passed!" Exclaimed the blond, pointing at his headband.

The cook smiled warmly and gave the boy a salute, tipping him his cook hat. "Well then, mister ninja, how do we celebrate that?" Asked the man with utmost seriousness.

"With one miso ramen large with extra pork, 'ttebayo!" Answered the blond with a blinding smile.

"One miso large extra pork comin'!"

"Dad, is Naruto here?" Came a distinctly feminine voice from somewhere behind the open kitchen.

"Hai, hai!"

A young brunette with her hair kept back by a white kerchief appeared, garbed in a white kimono and blue apron and holding some cooking gear. Much like her father, she had a constant fleeting smile but contrary to him, her chocolate brown eyes were open wide.

"Hellooo Naruto!" She greeted with a large smile once she saw the blond. "How is my little brother doing today?"

Naruto pointed once again at his headband. "Ninja!"

Ayame pumped her fist. "Hell yeah! Give me five!" The young woman said, her open palm in front of the blond.

Naruto lost no time and promptly slapped Ayame's open hand with his. "High five!" Said the boy with the same enthusiasm as his surrogate sister.

"Now now children careful," interrupted Teuchi. "We wouldn't want any accident to happen now, would we?"

Naruto and Ayame chuckled, the blond rubbing the back of his head. Teuchi was referencing an older day when Naruto and Ayame, both hyper for Flame knew why, had wrecked havoc in the little restaurant. It was a day dating back to when Ayame had not won her blue apron yet.

"Now, one miso ramen large with extra pork for you Naruto," said the cook as he slid a smoking bowl of edible goodness toward the blond. "Enjoy."

Naruto nodded and inhaled the steam rising from the dish. The first time he had ever tasted ramen, he was a lost little boy trying to find his way in Konoha under heavy rain. He had fled from the orphanage this day, he did not remember why, and the light and the warmth spilling generously from the little bar had exerted over his young self the same fascination a flame did over a moth.

The kindly old man had offered him a bowl of miso ramen after the kind older sister had helped him shower and change. He had not gone back to the orphanage; instead, the Hokage had given him his flat. Since then, Naruto was a regular of Ichiraku's.

Shaking his head to dispel the age-old memories -everything had happened so long ago- Naruto broke his chopsticks and adjusted them in his right hand.

"Itadakimasu!" The blond exclaimed loudly before vacuuming the content of the bowl.

"So Naruto, you have to tell me how it went," said Ayame excitedly over whatever it was she was doing in her kitchen.

Magic, probably.

Naruto slurped on the noodles and chewed on them carefully. As good as they were, they were slippery and could easily end up in the wrong canal. His mouthful gulped down, the blond looked up at his sister in spirit.

"Well, nothing much. We got a boring written test," began Naruto. _"It all began as I jumped from the Communication Tower to the Hokage Tower."_

"Then some shuriken throwing, pretty easy." The blond continued. _"Then I made my way to the vault, escaping the vigilance of the patrolling _chunin_."_

"Then what was it again… Oh yeah, stupid genjutsu escape test," said the boy, scratching his chin. _"I picked a damn hard lock to pick in four minutes under the cover a self-made _fuinjutsu_. To think _fuinjutsu_ didn't even give me extra credits, tch!"_

"Then we all had to demonstrate our taijutsu." Naruto kept on going. _"I then escaped with a very important scroll and fled to a little clearing where I learned one _jutsu_ from the scroll."_

"And to finish, the Academy Three, except this time I did not flunk the clone," finished Naruto brightly.

_"To finish, I beat a traitor with my new _jutsu_ and gave the scroll back. I probably saved Iruka-sensei and I learned I'm a _jinchuriki_. The unofficial version definitely sounds more awesome. Though nothing would have happened if I had used my brain in the first place."_

"That's so cool!" Ayame exclaimed, interrupting the boy's train of thoughts.

Naruto smiled. "Thinking about dropping ramen and going ninja, Nee-san?"

The older girl laughed before she pumped her fist, stars shining in her eyes. "No silly, there is nothing that'd distract me from the holiness that is ramen!"

"Amen," provided Naruto, chuckling.

"Tch, insolent," threatened the girl, giving Naruto a mock glare before her smile returned. "Anyway no, I'm not going ninja but that won't stop me from finding ninja cool."

"And that's a mighty good thing! Who else would pick up the torch when I retire?" Teuchi joked from the side.

It was one hour and five more bowls later that Naruto exited the little restaurant, his stomach full to the brim, a wide smile on his lips, happy to have talked with the man he considered an uncle and the girl he saw as a cousin. Even if he had to lie to their face. The blond's smile faltered.

Naruto's eyes hardened. Well, he was a ninja now. He had accepted the hitai_-_ite and fastened it around his head. He had claimed for so long he'd be a shinobi and now that he was one, he had to act the part. And the businesses of a shinobi lay essentially with cheating and killing. He just really had not expected he'd lie so quickly, to people he considered family at that.

His life was complicated and he had chosen a complicated path. Or the path had been chosen for him, Naruto wasn't sure, and honestly, it did not change much in the grand scheme of things.

Now if only he could find himself a bright, preferably neon colored, orange board with a clear goal marked on it, that would be ideal. The previous one, with "Hokage" painted all over had gone out just last night and now Naruto threaded a path without much light to guide him.

The boy sighed and rolled his eyes. Now he was philosophizing in the middle of the street with heavy use of metaphors. If he did not know Teuchi had absolutely forbidden her to do so, the blond would swear Ayame had slipped some sake in his ramen. Again.

Or maybe the noodles made him sentimental.

"Urgh, how do I kill time again?" Muttered the blond. He had no time to set up a prank and he did not want to stuff his brain with more fuinjutsu nor risk some accident while experimenting with jutsu theory. It had been a long time since the blond had, well time, and time unoccupied made him dwell on questions that frankly weirded him out.

Who are you? What do you want to do? Why do you want to do it? What in the Flame were those questions, 'ttebayo!? And just as he was going to enter ANBU at that! Naruto groaned. He really had to find something to do to distract his mind.

A smile found its way back on his face as he spotted a small silhouette he knew well.

* * *

Three shadows were sitting around a small table; one was on the edge of a chair and the two others were resting on a couch. A small bowl of cashew nuts was at the center of the table.

"You called for us, Sarge?" One of the shadows sitting on the sofa asked. Her voice was distinctly female, young but not juvenile, not girly but without the rounder notes of maturity. A teenager.

"I did. The boss found us a recruit to break," answered the one on the chair. The voice was manly, deep but frozen in a monotone.

"Again?" The first shadow whined. "They keep sending them and they don't fit! We work well enough with three!"

"It might be the case but a team is comprised of four ninjas," chided the first shadow gently, her voice warm and womanly.

"Pff I know that." The first shadow answered again. "Doesn't change the facts."

"He will be submitted to the same process as any recruit. If he doesn't fit, he takes the boot." The man interrupted with a note of impatience. "Do not get your bra in a twist." He added with his voice back to his monotone.

There were a chuckle and a laugh.

"It's supposed to be panties," corrected the woman, in a tone that told she hoped to be helpful.

"Yeah, Sarge, it's panties, panties!" Laughed the teenage girl. "I don't wear a bra anyway." She declared with mirth.

"I see. I will try to remember it." The man spoke in the same toneless voice, completely ignoring the girl's claim, which made her pout. "Anyway, the Boss was clear, this is non-negotiable, so prepare to give a newbie some hell."

The two women shuddered. Their squad leader had most of the time a level of control on his body language and voice that bordered on psychotic, allowing only what he wanted to allow, and only when torture and training were mentioned did it slip outside of his grip. Also gardening, but that was neither here nor there.

"Alright, buntaichou. When do we receive him?" The older woman asked.

"Tomorrow at first rotation."

"So soon!?" The younger girl choked on cashew nuts.

"Do we know who he is?"

The man took a deep breath. That was where he knew the gears would truly grind to a halt. He mentally prepared himself and covered his eardrums in a layer of protective chakra.

"Naruto Uzumaki."

The apparent silence took the man by surprise and he ceased to modulate his chakra just in time to hear the teenager's cry of protest.

"What!? The squid is barely a ninja!"

The man winced slightly at the volume of the shout but said nothing, knowing his young teammate would express herself for a minute before he could speak. So the squad leader waited for the young girl to end her string of expletives.

"The fuck?!" Punctuated the teenager eventually, her breath coming short.

"I should wash your mouth with soap young lady," commented the woman.

"Pff, whatever Cat, you're not my mom."

The man rasped his knuckled on the table. "Attention please." He asked in his unchanging monotone.

"Hai."

"This squad is under my command and as long as it's under my command, we will obey orders. The Boss gave us the responsibility to haze the boy, we will haze the boy. And if we gain a teammate, all the best."

"Tch, as if."

"Don't dismiss the child before even seeing him," chided the woman. "That isn't fair to him. Everybody has a fair chance to join-"

"But he is just out of school Cat! He was in the same class as my idiot brother and he was second to last if not dead last!"

"A severe bias toward Uzumaki has been identified in his teachers," explained the man evenly before his voice took a more forceful edge. "And anyway, Boss scouted him himself so end of the argument."

"Pff, fine. He won't make it anyway."

"We shall see."

* * *

The spiky black hair gathered in a wild ponytail jutting out of the weird grey cap, the ever-growing blue scarf, and the yellow T-shirt with the leaf emblem on it belonged without a doubt to Konohamaru Sarutobi, antepenultimate youngest heir to the Sarutobi clan, son of Taiga Sarutobi, grandson of Hiruzen Sarutobi, honored son of the Leaf.

As someone close, or at least in theory, to the third Hokage, Naruto was familiar with the Sarutobi. They were nice people if a bit distant but much less than the rest of Konoha. They weren't all as spontaneous as the Ichiraku but they regularly had a kind word for him. They were probably the reason Naruto even tried. The blond had played more than once with Konohamaru much like Ichiro, Konohamaru's older cousin had played with Naruto. The blond knew the "honored son of the Leaf" well.

Naruto chuckled silently as he neared the little eight years old. The boy absolutely detested when people called him "honored son of the Leaf". The blond skulked and closed in on his target. The young Sarutobi was being sneaky, meaning he was up to something. Naruto let his right hand fall on the younger boy's shoulder.

"Hey Ko!"

The answer was immediate and did not disappoint. The boy jumped, whirled, and screamed at the top of his lungs. Naruto laughed.

"Boss, don't do that!" The young Sarutobi eventually exclaimed furiously, his dark blue eyes glaring at the taller blond.

"Ah ah ah, sorry but that was too tempting. And you need to keep awareness of your surroundings." Naruto answered in a learned tone. "So, what are you up to?"

The boy suddenly grinned a grin that should not have been seen on the face of an eight years old and giggled. Naruto sighed; he knew this face well. It was kind of a Sarutobi family trait.

"Who's the victim this time?" The blond boy asked, vaguely amused.

"Kurenai-oba. She made all the books disappear."

Naruto gave the younger boy a sideways smile. He knew full well what books Konohamaru was talking about. They were small, orange, perverted, and generally disgusted Kurenai Yuhi-Sarutobi, Konohamaru's aunt.

"And what are you going to do?" Naruto asked, mildly curious.

The boy rummaged in the folds of his scarf -Naruto could swear this thing was unnatural- and brandished a pair of silk panties and an assorted bra. The blond fought a slight blush at the sight of the rather risqué lingerie.

"She's with her friends at the Dango place. I'mma run around with it on my head!" the little boy exclaimed mischievously.

"You're so gonna die," deadpanned Naruto.

"Tch, she'll need to catch me," assured the brown-haired boy.

"She's a jonin, Ko. Even I don't outrun them." Naruto retorted. "Well, most of them, I don't." The blond added as a second thought. "Anyway, she'll catch you and I don't even want to imagine what she'll do to you."

Konohamaru's smile faltered and the boy shuddered. Shuffling with his feet, the young Sarutobi looked down as if shameful. "I… Didn't really think this through, did I?"

Naruto shook his head at the obvious conclusion. "No, you didn't. So how do make it better?" Asked the blond in a tone that was eerily reminiscent of one a teacher would use during a lecture.

Konohamaru replaced the lingerie in his scarf and took his chin in his hands. After a few second, the boy looked up at Naruto, his dark blue eyes asking silently for help.

"Alright, remember Ko, simplify the question. What's the goal?"

"To embarrass aunt Kurenai!" Exclaimed the Sarutobi.

"How?"

"By showing her perverted lingerie around!"

"What happens if she catches you?"

Konohamaru shuddered. "She'll place me in one of her genjutsu."

"Can you escape by running?"

"No."

"Then what's the question?"

Konohamaru pondered a few moments before answering. "How do I… Keep her from moving?" The boy hesitantly said.

Naruto nodded with a bright smile. "Good, maybe I'll manage to do something with you. Now, what do you propose?"

"A trap?"

Naruto nodded again, thoughtfully this time. "A possibility but again, she is a jonin. You'd need a damn strong trap to surprise her and keep her immobilized."

"Then… Then… Hum… I don't know." Konohamaru slumped in defeat.

The taller blond boy grinned. "Normally you'd be a bit young but there is another tactic."

The brown-haired child looked up hopefully. "Another tactic Boss?"

A mischievous glint shone into azure blue eyes, an unsaid promise of fun and embarrassment. "Have you ever heard the term "shock and awe" Ko?"

The younger boy shook his head frantically, his mind already sold on the idea, whatever it was. "Shock and awe" sounded absolutely awesome.

"Remember my special Henge?"

The Sarutobi nodded with stars in his eyes. Naruto had a special Henge thanks to which he had stolen their grandfather's hat numerous times.

"Let's alter it a little, shall we?"

* * *

One hour later and the two boys were observing a certain Dango shop from the low roof of a building across the street. Roof they had accessed thanks to Konohamaru's scarf -unnatural, really- and were now camping on.

"When are they meeting again?" Asked Naruto to his companion. Or was the boy his underling? Konohamaru did call him Boss after all.

"They should be here anytime no- Hey! There they are!" The Sarutobi answered in a shout-whisper.

And indeed, three women were settling down at the Dango shop's terrasse. One had long, flowing dark hair, peculiar red eyes, and a dress that frankly, Naruto could not explain. It was Kurenai, their target. Another, older by a few years, had spiky brown hair, fang-like markings on her cheeks, and was garbed in combat fatigues. A large dog -Naruto was certain it was more a wolf than a dog- trailed behind her. Her name was Tsume Inuzuka and her presence meant they were probably discovered already. The last woman was a purplette as old as the first, her hair tied in a high ponytail, her clothes could be qualified of open. She was Anko Mitarashi, the Snake Mistress.

Naruto cursed silently. The Inuzuka and Mitarashi were trackers, meaning they would recognize their scent. The blond balanced the pros and the cons of continuing with the prank and decided he needed the rush. "Alright, we let them settle down and relax, that'll bring their guard down. You have the rest of the plan?"

"Yes, Boss."

"Remember, when you feel it, you relax."

"Yeah, yeah, I know."

"It's important Ko. Otherwise, it doesn't work and you are caught!"

A few minutes later, the three women were munching on a variety of dangos and drinking, sake for two of them, juice for the red-eyed woman. Suddenly, two non-descript boys approached their table. Before any of the ladies could say anything, two voice chorused in perfect synchronization.

"Sexy Jutsu!"

A light puff of smoke later and before the flabbergasted women stood two very tall, quite muscular, and very naked men. One was a blond, the other a brunet, and if one word was to be used to describe them, it would be "hunk".

They had chiseled muscles glistening under a perfectly tanned skin, their hair were wild but in a very controlled kind of way. One was biting his lower lips in a suggestive manner while the other had a hand in his hair, flexing his biceps. Both were wearing a very, very risqué set of lingerie; red, laced, with small pearl and everything.

A small trickle of blood rolled from Anko's nose as the woman eyed the two pieces of eye candy, a stupid grin on her face. Tsume just exploded in uncontrolled, loud laughter. And Kurenai, poor Kurenai, had recognized her newest set of lingerie, one she hadn't even shown her husband yet and was inventing a new shade of crimson while trying, and failing, to not look at the two Adonis.

"Hello, ladies."

A trickle of blood escaped Kurenai's nose, much to her horror, and it was at this moment she jumped. With blinding speed, she jumped on the two impudent boys -she was a married woman by the Flame- prepared to slaughter them.

They were already running at top speed. The jonin gave chase, leaving behind one daydreaming Anko Mitarashi and one Tsume Inuzuka trying not to die from laughter.

Naruto and Konohamaru, under the disguise of their Sexy Jutsu, were running as fast as they could. Naruto nudged the Sarutobi and winked. The other boy nodded and slowed down.

Kurenai had quickly caught up to the two; they weren't fast enough to outrun a jonin. She was preparing herself to give them a beating they would remember in their next reincarnation when the boys willingly stopped. The jonin smiled wickedly. They had given up. Good.

"Ara, Yuhi-san, how are you?" One boy, the blond, dared to ask.

Kurenai cracked her knuckles. "You're in for a world of pain." She fumed.

"But what for, Yuhi-san? Didn't you pay us to put this show?" Asked the brunet cheekily.

Kurenai simply punched him, hard.

And the boy disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"What?"

"Bye, Kurenai-san!" Waved the blond boy before he, too, went up in smoke.

Wide-eyed, Kurenai whirled around once, twice, and then a third time to try and discover where the boys had gone. She was facing their last position, right in front of her, when she noticed a piece of paper floating in the wind. The woman snatched the note and opened it.

"Gotch'a."

Kurenai felt the red of anger color her cheeks. She had no proof, of course, but somehow this looked, smelled, and breathed like her nephew and his surrogate brother.

"Konohamaru Sarutobi!" The jonin roared.

On the other side of Konoha, two boys, one blond and the other a brunet, were panting heavily. Before they both started laughing hard, falling on their bottom.

"Ah ah ah! Did you see her face?!"

"Ah ah, yeah! And when you said… Ah ah ah, when you said hello ladies, ah ah ah!"

It took ten minutes before the fit of laughter the two boys were subjected to calmed. Panting, Naruto and Konohamaru looked at each other, wide smiles spliting their face.

"That was an awesome prank Boss, thanks for the help!"

Naruto smiled. "You're welcome Ko."

"Hey Boss, by the way, how did you do those bunshins? They were extra cool! And I didn't even know you could swap with a person!"

Naruto weighed the pros and cons of telling his younger brother that the substitution was actually a gamble brought forth by jutsu theory. He knew it was theoretically possible. He had never practiced it. He had bet on the fact that a shadow clone being pure chakra, it would compensate for the complicated mass exchange. He had been proven right. He would need to look into it, of course.

"I'm awesome like that!" Naruto eventually chose to say. Ko was his little brother, the blond had to maintain a certain level of awe after all.

"You sure are Boss!" Said Konohamaru with stars in his eyes.

"Right, right," answered the blond, eying the sky. The sun was setting. "Alright Ko, that was fun but you should run to Moegi and Udon. You need your alibi."

"You got it, Boss!" The Sarutobi said, rising from his sprawled position. Dusting himself a bit, Konohamaru threw a look at his big brother. "When do you visit?"

Naruto pointed at his forehead. "Well, I'm a ninja now so-"

"What the hell?! How did I not notice that?" Exclaimed Konohamaru furiously. 'I'm sorry bro! Well done!"

Naruto waved him off. "That's okay Ko, you were focused on the prank, which is good. A constant focus is half the success of a prank. Anyway, gonna be a bit busy but I'll find the time for sure."

The younger boy smiled brightly. "That's so cool bro. So cool. I can't wait to enter the Academy in autumn."

Naruto returned the smile. "Work hard and you'll get your headband in no time." Maybe even quicker than me, thought the blond.

"He he, I'll do my best Boss."

"I don't doubt it. Now shoo, go find the rest of your corps."

"Sure!" Konohamaru nodded with enthusiasm. "Cya Boss." The young Sarutobi whirled and readied himself to depart when Naruto's call stopped him.

"Oh Ko!"

The brunet boy turned back. "Yeah Boss?"

"Thanks for the prank. I kinda needed it." Naruto said gently with a fond smile.

Konohamaru blinked twice and shrugged. He had never seen his Boss like that. "Sure thing bro, anytime." The Sarutobi hesitated. "Anything else?"

Naruto's small smile turned into a grin. "Nah, you're free to go."

The younger boy nodded and sprinted off, leaving Naruto to his devices.

It took a minute for the blond to stand up. The prank, the rush of the chase, and the laughter had cleared his mind from all the stupid questions. They would come back obviously, Naruto knew that, but right now he felt lighter. Slowly, the blond walked back to his flat.

It was only half past six but the sun was already very low. It was still only the beginning of April after all and while the days were steadily getting longer, the night was still quickly there. Naruto loved Konoha in the evening. The streets were full of people who would glare at him, were he to dare walk among them, but he enjoyed it nonetheless. From the roofs, more often than not.

The evening was when people would end their working day and get out to enjoy the pleasant warmth of the breeze. Dressed in their finer garments, people discussed with their neighbors while the kids played happily. Masters of various craft gathered in bars to drink fancy wines while their apprentices did much the same but with simpler, cheaper beer. The air was filled with spicy fragrances of slowly cooking food that would be ready in one hour or so, waiting to be eaten, and for the more carefree citizens, stands sold food to-go. The paper lanterns hanging above the streets were set alight and bathed all in a cozy light.

Each evening, Konoha was a festival.

A festival Naruto had never been welcomed to take part in, of course, but even from the roof, it was a sight to behold. It was probably for the Konoha evenings that Naruto had not fled to some unknown part of the world, where people would look at him normally. He knew that were he to depart, he would miss the evenings because he was certain no other place in the world could compare. Probably.

And Naruto was not petty, at least he liked to think he wasn't. The laughter of the children, the warm greetings of the neighbors, the food waiting and simmering in a big pot: even if he hadn't really enjoyed all that, and to a certain extent he had, thanks to the Sarutobi and the Ichiraku, it did not mean no one was allowed to enjoy it. Konoha owed him big time but it did not mean they were forbidden to live and be happy.

Naruto would gladly fight if it meant protecting the evenings in Konoha. Or something like that.

Munching on a skewer of something, Naruto reached his apartment. When he opened his door, the boxes were magically gone and a note was pinned to his dining table. His heartbeat rose slowly as he took the note, mounting excitement making it go awry.

"Tomorrow at four in the morning. Dragon."

Naruto tightened his fist, breathed in deeply, and took a hearty bite of his brochette, finishing it. "Yosh!"

Tomorrow was a new day and tomorrow was a new life.

* * *

**A/N: Hope you enjoyed. The punching, running, and general torture begins in the next chapter. Don't forget the poll, I'll keep it up until next week. 'member, I feed on reviews (though you can send ramen like someone did already).**


	4. Chapter 4 Shadows

**A/N: What do you mean I own nothing? As if that would stop me, 'ttebayo!**

* * *

Naruto had not slept well. The rush of adrenaline and the satisfaction of a prank well done had dissipated sooner than later and the happiness of having hung out with Konohamaru had disappeared someplace else, Naruto had no idea where exactly. The blond had tossed and turned in his bed, sleep eluding him. He had not been that nervous since three years ago when he had first attempted the graduation exam of the Academy. Maybe it had to do with the fact he had not been wearing his trusty nightcap, as it was in the "keep" box which had been taken.

He had been relieved when his alarm clock had rung quarter to four. The hyper blond boy had jumped out of his bed, heart beating faster than a hummingbird would flap its wings, and had taken a very long shower, using every last dredge of hot water he could. The nervousness had receded but hadn't left him.

The blond boy dressed in the same clothes he had worn the day before: a green, short-sleeved shirt, and beige shorts. He wondered for a second what to do with his pajamas but ultimately shrugged. They were only pajamas after all.

The last three minutes he had to wait nearly drove him crazy and Naruto exhaled a relieved sigh when someone knocked on his door. The blond promptly scrambled to his hallway and opened the wooden panel. In the frame stood a single eagle-masked ANBU.

"Follow me, Uzumaki-san. Close the door and leave the keys on it. All will be taken care of," drawled the cloaked figure, its voice distinctly male despite the distortion effect.

Naruto nodded briefly, threw one last glance at a place he honestly did not know what to think about and exited the apartment before closing the door. Feelings mixed and churned in an unholy mess in his stomach. The blond was torn between the hope of never seeing this flat ever again and a weird nostalgia. He hadn't had only unpleasant experiences living here. It was terribly lonely most of the time, yes, but it was here Naruto had planed his best pranks, "studied" perverted magazines with Ichiro Sarutobi, eaten tons of cupped ramen with Konohamaru, and done hundreds of others things.

It was here he had toiled like mad on jutsu theory and fuinjutsu, creating some of his best traps and supplementary pranking materials. It was here he had metaphorically demolished his wrist after perfecting his calligraphy for hours on end.

"Bye," whispered the blond before he turned his back resolutely.

"Ready?"

"Hai, ANBU-san."

"Good, follow."

Naruto in tow, the ANBU led the blond through Konoha. The boy took a deep breath in as he followed the cloaked man. Dawn was not exactly here yet, the eastern dark night sky slowly changing to a lighter blue, the air was crisp and the streets were silent. The only signs of activity were teams of chunin and older genin patrolling the quiet city, jumping stealthily and silently from roof to roof.

The only reason Naruto even knew they were here was the fact they were the only things moving, the speedy jumps and motions catching his attention.

The blond relished in the feeling of peace. He was rarely up and out at this hour, primarily because no one in their right mind would wake up this early in the morning. He was a ninja now though and he would probably get his fair share of nightly patrol and sleep deprived night.

For a second, a buried part of the blond's mind considered removing his headband and fleeing back to his rundown apartment. Sleep was a sacred thing after all. The fleeting thought was gone before Naruto could realize he had even had it.

The ANBU and Naruto navigated the labyrinthine layout of Konoha in the direction of the Hokage Monument. The hidden village was built in the large, forested valley of the Naka river, a valley that was delimited by rocky plateaux of ochre color. Konoha was backed against one of those plateaux and the cliff sported the sculpted faces of all four Hokage. Hopefully, many more hieratic visages would be carved from the rock and add to the splendor of what civilians and ninjas alike called the "Hokage Monument."

The two lone figure kept walking for fifteen minutes at the same fast pace and they found themselves before the cliff in front of a narrow staircase that slithered all the way up the plateau. Naruto was familiar with the stairs, having used the many steps several times in his twelve years of life, be it for a prank or simply to daydream on the Fourth's head.

The ANBU began to ascend the stairs and Naruto followed. The blond knew where one casern of the corps was located; he had executed one of his best prank there (ANBU in clown masks were hilarious and weirdly threatening) but they were not going there. Which was logical if the test had anything to do with demonstrating tai- and ninjutsu. They would need some kind of training ground.

They were midway through the climb when the ANBU took a turn and started following a small trail that went along the cliff. Toward one of the little shacks built directly on the rocky side of the plateau. Naruto felt excitement bubble within his chest and replace his anxiety; he had never been to one of those shacks, they were always closed. As in, there was no outside door to access whatever was inside.

The two stopped in front of the shack, built under the chin of the Nidaime's head. The ANBU sped through hand-signs too fast for Naruto to see and in front of the amazed blond's eyes, a seal shone for a second before a door appeared in the wall. A fuinjutsu to seal the entrance so completely, uninvited people could not even see it. Naruto grinned as his mind tried to visualize how such a seal could work before the eagle-masked man called him.

"Enter, Uzumaki-san."

Naruto started and silently berated himself for being distracted at such a moment. The blond took a deep breath. His momentary fuinjutsu-induced trance had calmed his nerves a little so the boy entered the cabin before anxiety or panic could surge back again.

The inside of the cabin was small, empty, and overall disappointing. The blond whirled around when the door behind him closed. The only source of light was the meager light of a shy dawn filtering through two little windows. In other words, it was as dark as the darkest night.

The blond waited a few moments for either someone to come or his eyes to adapt. His vision started to get clearer and clearer, using the barest light to make out basically nothing. The cabin was an empty rectangle, with two tiny windows offering a view over Konoha and the back wall plunged into darkness.

Naruto gulped and his mind started to work out strange forms in the shadows. His ears were keenly aware of the heavy, muffled silence that reigned king and his own breathing sounded like a forge's bellow. There wasn't even one insect singing, only deafening quiet. The blond wondered if he was the victim of one very elaborate and completely unfair prank. He had not deserved that!

"Anyone here?" Naruto asked suddenly, his voice dying quickly in the darkness.

Doing his best to ignore his rising nerves, the boy turned around and away from the back wall and his eyes searched the windows. Tiptoeing to get a better view, the blond did his best to look at Konoha. Sprawled before him was the still sleeping city, some rare lights popping up here and there; probably bakers and such profession that required to wake early.

His hands blindly searching the wall for purchase eventually felt a protrusion. Something was jutting out of the wall, a small bowl-like shape made of rock. Inside the bowl was a solid but rather fragile substance Naruto knew but could not identify. Tentatively, the blond broke some matter off the unknown object and smelled it.

It had a vague honey scent.

Warily, the boy put a tiny amount of matter on his tongue. It had an awfully soggy feel to it but tasted very vaguely like sugar and flower. Seeing as he wasn't dead yet, the boy took another taste of the stuff. It was familiar and was definitely linked to honey but he could remember what it was.

That's when the light went on. It was a candle, obviously.

Naruto smiled. He wasn't proficient at it but the Academy did teach its students a very easy, low power fire jutsu. Naruto had had difficulty learning it much to his chagrin, as most students had taken to it easily, but could do it without problems nowadays.

The blond mixed his energies into chakra and molded some into a tiger seal. Moving the altered power to his throat, the blond took a large gulp of air, not actually breathing it completely, and blew. The chakra mixed with the oxygen and a tongue of fire, narrow and focused, escaped Naruto's mouth and crashed on the candle, it's wick easily catching fire.

The little flame shuddered and flickered but it illuminated a text Naruto could not have seen without it. It was carved on the edge of the niche supporting the candle.

"The shadow is where we serve," read the blond aloud.

Slowly, Naruto turned around and faced the back wall again. It was still plunged into darkness. The blond gulped. Suddenly, the fact now one in Konoha would ever recognize his service became a very concrete, tangible reality. Naruto turned again and watched the village again. If he took the step toward whatever was behind the back wall, he would never gain their recognition. He would toil, sweat, bleed, and maybe die without ever getting the appreciation he deserved.

Dragon's promises rang in his head. Dedicated instructors. A team that would be family. A mask to hide from the glares.

Who cared if the glares ever changed anyway? Pff, not him, 'ttebayo! Naruto had already concluded he could not force it in the end. Rather than chasing after something that was ultimately out of his control, wasn't it more intelligent to choose a path where conscious efforts would doubtlessly yield recognition?

Taking a deep breath, Naruto whirled around and faced the back of the little cabin, his heart going haywire. The pale light of the candle wasn't enough to pierce the all-engulfing darkness. The blond took a step, then a second, his resolution spiking and his heartbeat calming down. His mind was made. The boy disappeared into the strangely welcoming shadows. His hands raised in front of him in order to detect possible obstacles, the blond eventually felt the cold touch of rock.

Naruto tentatively pushed his palm against the stone wall when something pulsed and the boy stumbled forward, falling through the wall as if it were not even here to begin with.

"I commend your determination, young man," greeted the distinctly gruff, distorted voice of Dragon. "By choosing the darkness, you made your first step toward ANBU."

The blond nodded with enthusiasm. An enthusiasm that died at the cloaked shadow's next words.

"Now welcome to hell, Uzumaki."

* * *

"You called for me, Hokage-sama?" Iruka Umino asked, standing at attention before the desk of his leader. Iruka did know the Hokage's day started early but he had no idea it was before five in the morning kind of early. It was frankly not a time for a man, ninja or not, to be up. The chunin had been dragged off his bed by two ANBUs who had stated his presence was required at the Tower "immediately".

"Yes indeed, Umino-san. Take a seat please." The Hokage answered with a good-natured smile.

The chunin complied and took the offered seat. The brown-haired man looked up at the wizened old man. The face of Sarutobi Hiruzen was wrinkled, especially around his eyes. His small, acute, all-seeing, cunning grey eyes which shone with a rare kind of intelligence. The Hokage had a small beard covering his chin, that masked a scar. Who had given the scar varied in accordance with the old man's mood. It was this "damned Onoki with his jinton" in the rare instance the Hokage was actually angry and various other no-names when all was good.

"What may I do for you Hokage-sama?" The younger man asked eventually, curious as to the reason he was summoned. He was nervous as well; this early in the morning was not a time for normal affairs.

The old man took his trusted pipe and stuffed it with a generous amount of tobacco with practiced motions. Taking his time, Hiruzen took a whiff of the scented dried leaves before placing the end of the pipe in-between his lips. A snap of his fingers later and the tobacco had magically caught on fire. The Hokage took a long drag off of his smoking device and exhaled smoke. Smacking his tongue in satisfaction, the man looked at the chunin.

"How was your recovery, Umino-san?"

The man started a little and his eyes widened slightly but he answered nonetheless. It was weird for a Kage to inquire about the health of one single soldier, especially when the best hospital in the entire Fire Country was undoubtedly the Senju General Hospices, but the Sandaime was like that. Iruka had no illusion about it; the kindly old man facade was a charade and a well practiced one yet maybe a little part of it was genuine.

"I'm fine Hokage-sama, thank you. The Iryo-nin were very diligent. At the end of the week, everything will be good as new."

The old man nodded. "Good, good. Now Umino-san, I did not call you only to inquire about your health even it is quite important. I wanted to discuss the potential teams built by the sorting officers."

Iruka nodded. This was not unusual, if slightly surprising. The files the Academy provided on the graduated genin were enough more often than not. "What do you wish to know, Hokage-sama?"

"Well, as Naruto is not a member of the regular rooster-"

Iruka nodded. He had been informed that, while the blond had been promoted according to his recommendation, the boy was to serve for a year in the Tower as punishment for his stupid stunt. One did not steal the Forbidden Scroll without feeling some repercussion after all.

"-I was wondering what were your thoughts on the teams?"

"Permission to talk honestly, Hokage-sama?"

"Granted."

"I fear the sorting these last few years has been done with over-specialization in mind, which could prove fatal. There is one shining example of a team that was recently built with one primary goal in mind without neglecting other aspects of shinobi mission."

"I believe you're talking about team Gai."

"Yes, Hokage-sama. While Neji's taijutsu is fearsome, his eyes make him quite the tracker. Lee is a pure taijutsu beast that has even Neji beat in this department, even if he doesn't realize himself. And Tenten acts as long range support and learned some powerful genjutsu. Combined with her two teammates' taijutsu, it is an excellent capture combo. Overall, team Gai has shown better results than other too specialized teams created up to two years before."

"And you believe we should keep exploring this avenue." It was not a question and Iruka simply nodded.

"Then how would you suggest we do that?"

"While the Ino-Shika-Cho trio is a tradition and useful for capturing targets in open combat, we cannot deny that it is a formation that suffered heavy losses through the years. Mainly from ambush. I won't ever be the one saying the Nara aren't bright but even they can fall into traps and even their intellect cannot save them from that. An Akimichi should be paired with either a Yamanaka or a Nara but not both."

"We, of course, reached the same conclusion long ago. The formation is a matter of clan pride and honor."

Iruka nodded. "Of course, Hokage-sama, but Nidaime-sama once said-"

"That honor has a place and time and it is never the battlefield," interrupted the Hokage with a smile.

The chunin smiled. Of course, the Sandaime would know the adages of his very own sensei. "I do not have much hope that the formation could be modified yet it would open interesting alternatives." The brown-haired teacher offered.

"Such as?"

The chunin scratched his chin lightly. "First, I'd say Sasuke Uchiha, Kiba Inuzuka, and Hinata Hyuga. Solid as a tracking team, it would also be a fearsome close combat formation and could capture people without a problem. Between the hypnotic capacity of Sasuke's potential Sharingan and Hinata's near perfect control and her disabling strikes, they'd have the choice."

The teacher took a deep breath. "I would then place Ino Yamanaka with Aburame Shino and someone proficient with tai- and ninjutsu; maybe someone from another graduating class. Shino is a fearsome tactician and can already use many kikai assisted ninjutsu, while Ino knows of the Yamanaka clan's mind-related abilities." He explained. It was also crucial for Ino to be nowhere near the Uchiha, for both their security.

"And who would you partner the Nara and Akimichi heirs?"

"With each other of course, as well as Sakura Haruno. She is part of the top three kunoichis of this year and has a bright mind to her and a wide range of knowledge. Good chakra control, the memory of an elephant, and a certain willingness to learn," informed the chunin immediately. "_When she does not fawn over her crush,"_ he added silently.

The Hokage nodded and smirked. "I can guess, by the look in your eyes, that you also took into account the psychology of your charges." The old man said in an appreciating tone.

The chunin blushed very lightly at the praise -Flame he hadn't been in the field too long if a simple compliment could make him go red- and rubbed his scar distractedly. "Ah ah, well, yes. Let's say we weren't able to break some of them out of their… Peculiar habits."

The Hokage nodded and puffed at his pipe. "Now let's say that if Naruto had not graduated in such… Exceptional circumstances, my officers recommended teaming him with young Sasuke and Sakura…"

The old man let his question be unsaid. The white face of Iruka was telling enough.

"You do not think it would have been a good idea.

The chunin hesitated. "Permission to speak _bluntly_, Hokage-sama."

The Hokage raised an eyebrow but did not react other than that. "Permission to speak bluntly" was certainly not a standard demand. Smiling lightly the old man granted it. "Speak."

"It would have been a fucking disaster, Hokage-sama, in complete contradiction to everything I included in their files. Sorry for the curse."

Hiruzen waved it off. "How so?"

Iruka winced, he would reveal personal things about children, to the Hokage yes but still. All was in the children's file anyway. "Sasuke has a superiority complex. While he would accept a clan heir doing well and after some time, even equalling him in certain areas, he would not tolerate anyone of a lower station to do so. I… Know Naruto has a lot of potential Hokage-sama. I know of his experiments with fuinjutsu and jutsu crafting. Even if the use he gives them is… Debatable, the sheer amount of both work and talent necessary to reach such results is undeniable. He could be Sasuke's equal, probably even surpass him, with proper guidance and once someone figures out why he has a chakra control problem." The chunin explained.

The Hokage nodded and silently gestured for the teacher to keep talking.

"Sakura does not lack potential either but she needs to remember why she enrolled in the Academy in the first place. She is ridiculously infatuated with the Uchiha, anyone can see that and I noted it in her file. If she is paired with Sasuke, she won't ever think for herself, following her crush rather than her brain and it will be the cause of a very early retirement."

Or even death, thought the chunin without saying it. The Hokage nodded once again and sucked on his pipe, making the tobacco sizzle.

"Interesting. You said you made those remarks in their file, Umino-san?"

"Hai, Hokage-sama. I actually added this kind of recommendation in many files, as mandated."

The older man hummed, smoke escaping from his nostrils and surrounding his face. "It'd seem parts of these files have been lost between the Academy and the Tower…"

Iruka's eyes widened at the implication. If someone had tampered with the data he had provided to the officers in charge of creating the new team, it was treason. The teachers at the Academy did not make the teams themselves; officers of the Jonin Bureau did, knowing which jonin was available and what were the needs in terms of operational teams. Yet, the files provided by the teachers were heavily relied on, specifically to avoid teaming together people who would only be at each other's throat. In-depth psychological profiling had been implemented after the Sannin team had nearly fallen apart when they were ten due to their constant bickering. Their legendary teamwork had actually come years after, when they all had matured into their late teens, early twenties.

Teamwork was central to Konoha's philosophy, yes. It did not change the fact that what grown-up adults could do, moody pre-teens could not. The mind was malleable in strange ways. You could teach someone to kill and they wouldn't bat an eye but ask them to reconcile with their mother-in-law and it's mission impossible.

If someone had tampered with the files, he could see why the sorting officers would gather Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura in one assault team. A lot of power plus somewhat of a blank slate to mold according to needs. But given the personalities involved, such a team would never exist before all three had matured.

"You do not know anything about that, do you, Umino-san?"

The chunin stood up and saluted. "I swear I do not Hokage-sama. However, if I'm under-"

"Sit down, Umino-san, sit down," calmed the old Kage. "You have already been cleared, the inquiry is running since a day already."

"Could it have been Mizuki's doing?" Iruka wondered aloud. After all, no one knew who the traitor was working for and what had been his plan. Yet, because Iruka did not doubt the terrifying head of T&I was currently very occupied with the white-haired ex-teacher.

"We do not know yet but it is a possibility. Tell me Umino-san, how did you perform at infiltration back in your field days?" The old Sarutobi asked, puffing on his pipe.

Iruka rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "I was only mediocre I fear, Hokage-sama."

The man nodded. "Infiltration is not for everyone. I was terrible at it, so mediocre will do Umino-san," said the man with a small smile, making the chunin blush again at the _de facto_ compliment. "I'd like you to ask your colleague a few discreet questions about possible tampering. I'll want a report every two weeks."

"Hai, Hokage-sama."

"Then you are free to go."

The chunin rose and saluted before he hesitantly lowered the hand on his heart. "Hm, Hokage-sama?"

"Yes, Umino-san?"

"If I may, why have I been cleared?"

"In fact, you weren't but the clear picture you gave me of your class without a second thought was enough proof. You were monitored by a Yamanaka the second you entered this room and your body language did not shift." The Kage answered, piercing the teacher with his cunning grey eyes.

Iruka paled, gulped, and saluted again. You did not teach an old _monkey _new tricks. "By your leave, Hokage-sama."

"Dismissed."

Hiruzen Sarutobi puffed on his pipe silently, mulling over what the chunin had just told him. When Dragon had come to request Naruto, the Hokage had not reacted immediately at the "your officers are out of their mind" jab from the cloaked ANBU. It had taken a few hours before Hiruzen had summoned Dragon to have the man tell him why he had said that exactly.

From his extensive surveillance and observation of Naruto, the ANBU had gathered without too much problem the same information as the teachers concerning the relationship between Naruto and his fellow students. Of course, only the blond had been Dragon's focus, so the ANBU general could not tell much more about other students but he had basically torn the proposed team seven apart, stating that it was completely ridiculous and that five minutes with a Yamanaka would prove it. Hiruzen had ordered the files delivered to the Jonin Bureau be handed to him and much to his and Dragon's horror, the profiling was miles from what it should apparently have been. And Iruka Umino had just confirmed it: an investigation was needed.

Sabotaging team formation was a terrible offense, as it needlessly endangered the genin by placing them in an unfavorable, unbalanced environment. Now the question was, whose doing was it? Teachers were screened extensively before being given a position. It was basically thought impossible to place a plant as a teacher because the background check T&I ran was thorough. If your great-grandfather had been somewhat shifty toward Konoha, you did not become a teacher.

The Hokage sighed. In their world obviously, nothing was impossible. Things could be made to be highly unlikely at best. Still, Hiruzen trusted the work of counter-spying because ultimately, it was way easier to corrupt someone than to plant a sleeping agent. Sleeping agents were expensive to train, could waste away for years, could be uncovered, could turn on their home village in favor of the one they were infiltrating. And so on, and so on. But give a man more money than he could dream of and some would doubtlessly betray their nation.

Konoha did pay its teachers rather awesomely and the background check also made sure there was no possible way of blackmailing anyone but bribes were still a possibility. Hiruzen crossed his fingers, hoped the traitor was Mizuki and signaled for an ANBU to appear.

"Go and have Ibiki here as soon as possible."

The ANBU nodded and saluted once before departing. Hiruzen could hope as much as he could but he knew better than that. The Hokage had lied to Iruka when he had told the chunin things were already being checked and he hoped it would not be too late to begin now.

* * *

Naruto looked around him for a second -he was in a barely lit semi-circular room with three corridors starting from it- before his eyes fell on the cloaked, dragon-masked figure. The blond could feel a weird pressure settled on his shoulder and his heart once again started to beat too fast as his mouth dried up. For the first time, the shadow was making the boy extremely uncomfortable and Naruto distractedly wiped the palm of his hand on his shirt, trying his best to get his renewed nervousness under control. The figure's presence was simply frightening.

"Dragon-sama," saluted the blond after an audible a gulp.

Naruto knew his usual attitude toward discipline would not be tolerated here. Or rather, his little finger was telling him testing the limits would be an awful idea and would end in an awful result.

"As I said, you made your first step toward ANBU." The shadow declared evenly in his distorted, genderless monotone. The figure fished for something within his cloak and held a round, featureless mask a second later in front of Naruto.

The blond observed the mask for a second and wondered why it was completely blank save for a kanji on its forehead. Naruto paled vaguely when he read it: endure.

"The second step, if you so wish to take it, is to don this mask. But I warn you. The moment you wear it, you will be absolutely forbidden to remove it without my express order or in the secrecy of your cell. No one but me may see you without it. If anyone else does, you will be immediately removed from here. Do I make myself clear?" Dragon explained, his voice taking a cutting edge.

Naruto nodded but the ANBU barked, startling the boy. "Do I make myself clear?!"

"Hai, Dragon-sama."

The cloaked shadow nodded. "Good. Once you don this mask, you will officially be considered as a recruit in training. Do you accept it, Uzumaki?"

The blond looked intently at the white, blank mask and gulped. It was a mask made so he would disappear behind. Naruto's thoughts swirled once again in a maelstrom of confusion, much to the blond's annoyance. Was all around awesomeness worth what the mask would do to him? Yes, he had already made his mind, he was too far in to back up! But it would ensure that he would never be allowed to show Sasuke up, never be able to win Sakura's affection. When the mask would come off, he would probably never be the same. Naruto's blue eyes hardened and he gritted his teeth. He had pursued all that for years and nothing had come from it. At least here, he had been promised teachings and comradery. He wanted that and why did he care if he had to disappear in the shadows to obtain it?

If those walking under the sun would not acknowledge him, maybe those lurking in the dark would possess better eyes and do so. It was only fair there was a price to be paid.

Naruto undid his headband, grabbed the face mask, and fit the straps around his head resolutely, tired to argue with himself.

"Welcome to ANBU, Recruit. I am general Dragon."

The blond did not start at the dismissal of his real name. He accepted it silently and nodded. He had just accepted to disappear after all. Naruto saluted as he was taught. "At your orders, general!"

Dragon observed the salute silently. It was sloppy and unpracticed but one could not expect much more from an orphaned genin straight out of the Academy. It would be drilled, like many other things.

"ANBU is a family that thrives in the night so that Konoha may see another day. We deal with threat a conventional force may not deal with. Much like a family, ANBU supports its members. But there is one difference with a traditional family," said Dragon in his monotone. "Can you guess what this difference is, Recruit?"

The blond thought for a second before answering. "I have to prove myself, general."

Dragon nodded. "Excellent thinking Recruit. ANBU is a family whose members deserve to be part of. They won their place. It is up to you to do the same." The cloaked shadow snapped his fingers and suddenly, three new shadows joined the figure.

"Recruit, this is team Rho. They will oversee your training and test you. They will be the harshest taskmasters you will ever encounter but they will be absolutely fair, that I can guarantee you. If they can accept you, then ANBU can as well." The general explained while motioning towards the three ANBU who had just appeared.

"Before I allow you to go Recruit, here is a riddle that was given to us by our founder, one each recruit must solve." Dragon continued, staring intently at the masked Naruto who felt himself sweat. "Love, or power? Reflect on this riddle, Recruit. Now go."

All three ANBU saluted and Naruto did a second later. "Hai, general!" They all chorused.

Dragon nodded once and departed in the rightmost corridor, leaving three seasoned ANBU and one little masked newbie for them to break. Naruto shuddered; he could feel all three shadows smiling behind their masks and they all were giving off more or less wicked vibes.

"Let us begin," said a distinctly male, monotonous voice as the tallest of the three ANBU approached Naruto. "What's your name."

The boy was ready to answer with a "Naruto Uzumaki 'ttebayo" but the orders of Dragon rang in his head and stopped him. Not only had the man made clear Naruto was not to remove his mask but the moment he had put his mask on, the ANBU general had ceased to call the blond "Uzumaki" and had immediately switched to "Recruit".

His identity was part of the mask. Naruto gulped. As long as he was wearing this mask, he was "Recruit".

"I apologize…" Naruto searched quickly for a sign that would give him the rank of the ANBU but he could find none of the classical one taught at the Academy. "Officer-san, but I'm not supposed to reveal my identity," said the boy, bowing.

The ANBU nodded. "You catch on quick," said the man while keeping his voice neutral. "Good. I've been told you know the shadow clones jutsu." Some curiosity bled into the man's voice but it wasn't much.

"Yes, I know it, officer-san."

"Do you know of the secret behind the technique?"

Naruto shook his head. He did not know of any secret. The ANBU was obviously not referencing to the fact the shadow clones were solid clones. "Is officer-san thinking about how it duplicates weapon as well?"

The ANBU said nothing for a second before he talked again. "No. Did you notice anything peculiar when you used shadow clones?"

The blond searched again. If the cloaked man was not referring to the ability to duplicate weapons then he was obviously thinking of…

"I get a headache when they dispel."

The man nodded. "That is because of the memory transfer process." Before Naruto could ask anything, the man continued. "When a shadow clone dispels, all remaining chakra alongside with what the clone has experienced returns to the user to be assimilated."

Naruto's eyes widened behind his mask as his brain worked out the implications of what the man had just said. "You want me to train in many things at the same time?" The blond asked, forgetting the "officer-san" in his mounting excitement.

"Yes. We will begin slowly with no more than four clones at a time. The experience feedback can be extremely dangerous for the brain, hence the headaches. Meditation should make the process smoother and easier and allow for more clones to be used but we will work on that."

Naruto nodded eagerly, crossed his fingers in the special seal, and pushed chakra through it to mold the energy. "Shadow Clones Jutsu!"

In a poof of smoke, four blank-masked blond boys appeared around the original, making the man nod.

"Two will go with Cat here, one with Dog, and the real you and the last clone will personally go with me. I'm Tiger and I'm sergeant of team Ro and its leader."

"Hai, sir!" chorused all five Naruto before they broke off to stand beside the ANBU they had been assigned to.

* * *

Without further ado, Dod led their clone to the left, Cat to the right, and Naruto and his copy stood behind the tiger-masked man. The ANBU turned towards the two boys and spoke.

"Whatever happens, do not use your chakra."

Soon, Naruto's breath shortened and his legs started to burn slightly. The corridor was unending, curving slightly to the right and relatively sharply upward, making it like climbing a hill. Now, the blond was no pushover in terms of stamina and speed and the ANBU leading him was not going fast but somehow, Naruto was getting tired. For someone used to lead chunin by the nose through Konoha in a mad chase, it was unacceptable. The boy gritted his teeth and kept the pace.

Time passed and Naruto started to sweat. It felt like he was carrying some sort of weights on his shoulders. His breath was ragged at this points and his legs seriously hurt; he had definitely walked for hours. And frankly, his perception of time was shot so the blond did not dismiss the thought as impossible. The corridor did not seem like it wanted to end and the climb was becoming harder and harder. The blond had been tempted to use his chakra to alleviate the effort but Tiger had expressly forbidden him to do so. The boy frowned, gritted his teeth, and walked on. It was a test and he would pass it, dattebayo!

After what felt like hours, his copy had dispelled, Naruto was utterly exhausted but Tiger and he had finally reached a door. Tiger opened the panel and motioned for the blond to follow.

Slowly, Naruto and Tiger exited the hellishly long corridor and stepped outside, to the surprise the boy. He had felt the climb of course but had not expected to end up completely out of the mountain in the middle of trees. Naruto took a deep breath and felt the strange weight leaving his shoulder. He then whistled lowly. He had entered, so to speak, the Hokage Monument at a third of its height and he was now outside after walking up a ramp, probably somewhere on the plateau overlooking Konoha. Given the size of the cliff, it had been quite the distance.

"You just climbed up what we call the "Warmer" here in ANBU," said Tiger suddenly, startling Naruto. "It's approximately fourteen miles long and it took us three hours and a half to climb it at the pace I imposed. The reason it was hard was not only because of the slope but because a fuinjutsu makes it so. You will run it each morning to build up endurance. Your end goal is to travel it in less than an hour."

The blond reigned in his sputtering indignation at the thought of running a fourteen miles, fuinjutsu-tampered climb in an hour. ANBU were supposed to be the best after all and there was always chakra.

"Just like today, you won't actively use any chakra of course," completed Tiger at this exact moment.

Naruto's brain froze. Chakra was always being subconsciously melded and pumped through the coils of a person. Chakra was the life force that coursed through all living things and as such, it was always present. Ninja simply learned to actively draw on it to use it. One such use was to enhance muscles momentarily for a boost of speed and strength. Running the endless corridor in an hour without actively pumping chakra in his legs seemed impossible. Naruto's brain started up again as he reached this conclusion and his tongue rebelled.

"What?! But that's bullshit!"

Something hit Naruto faster than he could blink and the masked blond found himself on the ground, his chest burning from a heavy strike.

"You will reign your emotions in. I will tolerate no outburst such as this while you train. Those will be reserved for your downtime. Am I clear?" The ANBU asked with his unnerving monotone.

Naruto frowned behind his mask but nodded as he took a deep breath in. "Hai sergeant."

"Good. I said running the Warmer in an hour was an end goal, not something you are supposed to do by tomorrow. ANBU requires determination. If you do not possess it Recruit, leave now."

Naruto's fist clenched and the blond frowned again. If there was something Naruto Uzumaki was excellent at, it was being determined, 'ttebayo! The masked boy nodded. "Understood sergeant."

"Good, now get up."

Naruto obeyed and fell in behind his instructor, who closed the door, made some hand signs that made it disappear in the rock it was carved into, and motioned Naruto to start walking again. The distance they covered was short this time and they entered a training ground. It had a very small pond on one side, where two ANBU were furiously fighting under the gaze of a third one, human-shaped targets that seemed to move randomly that a lone operator was pelting with shuriken, and six armored and articulated dummies, two of which were being pummeled by two others ANBU. There was a rather big cabin on the right side of the training ground.

"This is training ground three, its use is reserved to the third company. You may only use this training ground. ANBU has other facilities for special training but for all-purpose exercises, everything will happen here." The "understood?" was left unsaid.

Naruto nodded.

"When a recruit is admitted in ANBU, their training is done again from the ground. Most are experienced ninjas, however, which certainly advantage them. You will be held in the same regard as any recruit apart from special training to even out your own lack of field experience."

Naruto nodded and breath out silently. He would not have it any other way.

"Now Recruit, can you tell me what is the most important thing for a soldier to possess?"

The boy started at the sudden question. Replaying the question Tiger had just asked, Naruto's eyes widened silently. The man had not asked about ninjas but about soldiers. The response he was waiting for was not something specific to ninja then. It wasn't strength, as the answer was too obvious and too generic. Physical strength wasn't much of an answer either as various techniques could overcome it. Which outed speed of the equation.

"Techniques?" The boy asked, unsure.

"In ANBU, we do not answer the question of a superior officer by another question. We either give a reason or we admit to our ignorance," answered Tiger in his monotone.

Naruto gulped. "Technique. With the appropriate technique, you can face any threat." The blond proposed before grimacing as the ANBU shook his head.

"Incorrect. The most important thing for a soldier is his endurance." Tiger started to say, his right hand held up in a v-sign. "He needs to be able to endure slow, long term assignments as well as intense, short term ones. The physical and mental efforts required are different in each situation. A good soldier can alternate between long, slow efforts and short, intense ones several times and still keep going. For that, he needs endurance. Do you understand?"

Naruto nodded slowly. "I think so, sergeant."

"No, you don't," corrected the man instantly, making Naruto bristle a little at what the blond thought was an insult. "Once you experience it with your body, you will though."

The boy unclenched his teeth. Tiger was probably right. It was one thing to conceive something intellectually and another to live through it. Naruto stared at the ANBU with defiance, despite the fact the man could probably not see it.

"I'm ready, sergeant."

"No one truly is," answered Tiger immediately before crouching. From one of his belt pouch, the agent took a scroll. "You know how to open a storage tag?" Naruto nodded. "Good. Inside are some clothes for you to wear during physical training. Create one clone again then go behind the cabin and change."

"Hai!" Naruto created another clone, took the scroll, and scampered off to change. Tiger turned to the clone who nervously gulped.

"As the original work on the physical aspect of things, you will meditate. The goal is to relax and follow the flow of chakra through your coils. Do not attempt to control it, just go with the flow." The ANBU explained with his usual monotone before his voice took a strange edge. "If you fall asleep I will make you hurt much but not enough that you dispel. Is that understood?"

The clone gulped again and nodded frenetically.

"Good. Begin."

The clone immediately sat in a lotus position and closed his eyes. Naruto returned soon after. His face still hidden behind the mask, the blond was now wearing a short-sleeved shirt and a pair of pants that were wrapped under grey puttees. The shirt and pants were made of this strange blue, minutely green colored cloth that was used for the standard combat fatigues of Konoha ninjas.

The original blond watched the seated form of his clone curiously before he eyed his instructor. "What is he doing?"

"He is learning to meditate." The ANBU answered. "Do you know what an eight-count is?"

Naruto became whiter than the porcelain of his mask but acquiesced. "Hai, sergeant."

"Eight-counts, now, until I say stops. I'll count."

Naruto stood ramrod straight for a second before he folded his knees and crouched to get his hands firmly on the ground. He then kicked his legs backward in a single motion to find himself in a push-up position. The boy lowered his body before pushing back up. He kicked each of his feet on each side, kicked them back in line before kicking them under his torso back to a crouch. The blond then rose to stand straight.

"Your push-up is not a push-up. Lower your body to the ground, keep your back straight, your bottom squeezed tight and your elbows in." Tiger said. "Again."

Naruto did the count again only to hear the ANBU scold his form again. "Your back is not straight. Again."

The blond sighed. It was going to be a very, very long day.

* * *

Two Naruto clones followed Cat in a short corridor that opened on a longer, open perpendicular hallway with three levels, a steel staircase to access it, and many doors.

"Those are the cells where recruits like yourself sleep," explained the ANBU with a womanly voice. "Until you are either accepted or dismissed, you'll sleep here. Your cell is the number two hundred twenty-four, second floor. Your stuff has been brought there."

The two clones nodded and followed the ANBU when she walked without a word toward one end of the large, prison-like hallway. There was a door marked refectory. "Here, breakfast will be served each day at the first rotation. Four in the morning. Lunch will be at noon and dinner at seven."

The two replicas balked under their masks. Naruto did not really need a lot of sleep but they sure hoped for the sake of their Boss that he would be allowed to go to bed early. The ANBU suddenly whirled around and walked across the hallway in the opposite direction. The clones followed obediently to another door, this one marked library. The operative unlocked the door.

"Here is the library. You," said Cat, designing one of the two clones with a finger. "Go in there and learn by heart what the markings on an ANBU mask mean. They are a code and indicate the rank of an operative. It is also an S-ranked secret. If the original somehow reveals it, he will die."

The clone blanched, nodded, and disappeared behind the door.

Cat looked down on the other clone. "You follow me."

"Hai," muttered the masked copy.

The ANBU took the steel, spiraling staircase to climb to the second-floor gangway. She immediately went for a door that was exactly above where the original corridor ended. Opening the panel, this one marked "dojo", the female ANBU led the clone down yet another hallway with doors leading to dojo one either sides. Cat stopped in front of a completely nondescript door and opened it, revealing a square room with a wooden floor. The clone gulped when he noticed dark splatter marks on the wooden lattice.

"You will train your swordsmanship here with me. You are not to use a dojo alone. I will come and fetch you." The ANBU explained before stepping in.

The clone followed promptly and Cat closed the door, kneeled to spread open a scroll she had fished from a pouch, and unsealed its content. It was a straight, singled edged sword with a relatively short blade, a little bit under seventy centimeters in length. The edge of the blade was a light grey with almost indiscernible wave patterns in the steel while the top was a darker shade in color.

"This is a chokuto. As taijutsu is often insufficient to wound an opponent if it is not heavily chakra-enhanced, all ninja and particularly ANBU are required to learn kenjutsu. I will teach you." Cat said, presenting Clone-Naruto with the handle of the sword.

The clone took it with precaution, knowing a nick would be enough to dispel it.

"We will drill kihon and kata at first but let's work on your grip before we begin."

* * *

Clone-Naruto followed Dog, who had been silent, down the left hallway. It was relatively short and there had been closed doors on the wall but the ANBU had ignored them. Eventually, they reached one that seemed to satisfy the dog-masked figure who stopped.

"'Kay squid," began the operator, her voice young and feminine. "You're supposed to be good, time to prove it. In ANBU we do plenty of stuff. I'll teach you tracking, poison, and field medicine. For all that, you'll need your chakra control up to snuff first." The ANBU explained, making the clone bristle slightly behind his mask.

Yes, his chakra control was bad. Yes, he was willing to learn and get better. No, it was unnecessary to rub it in his face.

Dog royally ignored him and opened a door. The clone eyed the most bizarre room any version of Naruto, original or not, had ever imagined. The chamber was a cube but the ground had been carved out to form half a sphere, its curved surface covered with smooth, black tiles made of Flame knew what.

Dog walked in the room and beckoned for the clone to follow. The blond replica immediately fell on his butt; the floor was extremely slippery. The masked boy slid down the large bowl and ended in front of the ANBU, who was sniggering mockingly.

"Fresh out the Academy, uh? Tch."

The clone bristled again and fought against the tiles to right himself and stand up, carefully measuring each of his movement to avoid falling again.

"Double challenge for you. You need to pour chakra through the sole of your feet to stick to the ground. Too much and you fall, too little and you'll fall. The tiles are damn slippery also, which makes it harder," explained the ANBU before throwing a two fingers salute to the clone. Good luck newb." Dog completed before climbing up the slope of the sphere and sitting on the edge.

Clone Naruto turned slowly to face the ANBU and stuck out his tongue at her behind his mask.

"Your entire body language just tells me you did something. I'll punch the original for it," said the ANBU out of the blue. "Now get to it newb."

The replica grimaced and decided to get to work. Tentatively, he reached for his chakra and channeled as little as he could to his feet. He immediately bounced off the smooth tiles and impacted the curved wall before sliding down. The clone sighed. That was going to be a long day.

* * *

**A/N: I hope you enjoyed this more serious chapter. I lied a bit, I said last time the punching would begin now but apparently not. I can't cut it though, Naruto will train his ass off starting next chapter I promise. *insert training montage* I like reviews they are tasty, leave one for me?**


	5. Chapter 5 No Pain

**A/N: It's alive! It's alive and... It owns nothing. Before we begin and in light of some discussions I had over some reviews, I'd like to remind everyone that this is AU-ish. Things will change and if I write something that isn't canon (be it worldbuilding, character, techniques or whatever), there is a reason. If you'd like me to give a general warning as to what I'm changing, I'll put it up in my profile. It will be spoilers but meh. I hope you enjoy.**

**A/N: This is the beginning of a rather long training arc that spans for several chapters. I know it is too long. It does contain important plot and character points though. If anyone feel like pointing to me what could be removed/cut short, by all means do so in a PM/review.**

* * *

Naruto woke up with a start as his alarm rang twenty to four. The blond reined in the temptation to smash the black little box that was aggressively blaring in his ears. It took a minute for Naruto to recognize the grey walls surrounding him. He was in cell number two hundred twenty-four, his new home for the time coming. The blond rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and stretched. His muscles were sore. His, Naruto Uzumaki's muscles, were sore. It was not normal. He did not feel particularly sick, nor different but his muscles were sore. It had never happened to him before. It seemed like his personal definition of "training into the ground" did not match ANBU's own vision.

Naruto had trained, in his opinion, quite a bit and quite hard during his days in the Academy. It had been done without much guidance but the blond had followed the advice of Iruka and the instructions of scrolls. He had run, punched, kicked, done push-ups, sit-ups, and other whatever-ups. He had drilled taijutsu katas.

He had been doing it all wrong apparently and his new teachers had all given the boy a new perspective on the meaning of hard work. Tiger, especially, had enjoyed picking apart all the blond thought he knew. And Naruto was certain his sergeant knew how to write pain with the kanji for training. The boy only hoped gains would come soon but he had little doubt.

Naruto rubbed his eyes again and sighed as he looked again at his room. He did not know what he had expected but it certainly had not been a tiny prison-like cell in the middle of an underground bunker. After what Dragon had told him, Naruto had waited for… Something. He did not know what exactly but it was not this.

Life was decidedly intent on pummeling him with lemons and it was getting old. He knew his existence was ruled by Unfairness personified and that she was laughing at him somewhere but he had hoped there were limits. Naruto tightened his fists. Dragon had promised him a place in a family if he only could win it. The blue-eyed boy could bitch a whine about how it did not work like that for other, normal people but it would not achieve anything.

Dragon had promised and his very first promise turned out to be true. His instructors were nothing but dedicated to training him. The boy suddenly shuddered. His teachers were all different and some took more apparent pleasure in seeing him suffer than the rest but they were committed. The boy could not say anything to that. With enough determination, Naruto would make lemonade, he had no doubt. And Naruto Uzumaki had the determination to spare.

The blue-eyed boy hopped off his bed and directed his feet toward his bathroom. Each cell was basically a square room with a rather comfortable bed and a table, with one bathroom with shower, toilet, and sink adjacent to it. It was really minimal comfort but comfort nonetheless. Naruto relieved himself and stepped under the shower. The hot water relaxed his muscles and it truly was heavenly. The blond was really surprised he was hurting even if only a bit; it was not something he had ever experienced.

Naruto shook his head and hurriedly finished his shower quickly. He had been warned that the supply of water was limited; he had to be efficient. ANBU agent could not enjoy a long shower on their working days, it did not work like that. The shower was more to finish waking up than to clean himself. He had scrubbed himself sparkling last evening after the training.

Naruto clothed himself in another set of the training outfit he had been provided with, donned his mask, and eventually exited his cell, leaving it open. He had nothing to steal and had been assured that stealing did not happen anyway. It meant out immediately if someone was caught, plus a black mark on the person's file: inability to ever make jonin and retrogradation if the thief was one already. They did not deserve their rank if they were caught stealing or left enough evidence to be tracked down anyway.

The blond boy entered the refectory to see a few people, the vast majority wearing animal-themed masks, the rest wearing one like Naruto's. The boy walked up the counter where breakfast was served.

"Hello!" Naruto exclaimed with enthusiasm. ANBU or not, there was no reason to be grumpy in the morning after all. The boy had not talked loudly -it was barely four in the morning after all- but loud enough to attract attention all the same.

"Hello," answered a buffalo-masked operator from behind the counter in a monotone. "Cell number?"

"Two twenty-four."

The agent noted something in a register before turning back to the masked blond. "Here is your breakfast." The buffalo-masked operator said, giving Naruto him a tray with a very green looking shake of something in a glass, a bowl of something, and an apple.

"Good day to you," Naruto said

"Yes, yes, good day." The ANBU waved slightly.

Naruto frowned but said nothing. Maybe this particular operator was grumpy at four in the morning. Or maybe it was because Naruto was merely a recruit. The boy shrugged; it would come soon enough.

The boy sat at one of the long tables and looked at his tray. Given the meals of the day before, he would definitely not become fat. Naruto had not expected ramen but ANBU lifestyle seemed very… Cost efficient. Very soon, the boy was faced with the first challenge of his day: eating with a mask on. Naruto drew a bit of his chakra and molded it through the monkey hand sign. Chakra shaped itself around his face in a partial transformation and the blond could lift his mask from above his mouth without being seen. Tentatively, Naruto plunged his spoon in his bowl and shoved it in his mouth. He identified yogurt, dried nuts and fruits, cereals, and something else. A note of something sweet, no more than a touch, tickled his tongue.

Naruto's eyes widened under his mask. It was chocolate. The porridge was sweetened slightly with chocolate. The boy nearly choked from the surprise: ANBU was rich if it could afford that. Naruto had tasted chocolate only on rare occasion; it came from far away in the south and was expensive, way too much for little old him. Naruto immediately withdrew his previous mental statement about cost efficiency: breakfast with chocolate was definitely a luxury.

The blond ate with gusto, drank the weird green potion, that he frankly could not identify if his life depended on it but tasted quite good, and devoured his apple. Naruto was done in a matter of minutes and put the tray back to the counter, receiving a nod from the operator behind.

Naruto took his cantine from his belt and gave it to the operator. "Can I ask you to fill that?"

The man grunted but nodded and came back a second later with Naruto's cantine now full of water.

"Thanks, buffalo-san, good day." Naruto bowed and waved cheerfully as he departed, mentally readying himself for what was coming for him.

"Yeah, yeah, good day," came the response, a bit too late.

Naruto exited the refectory and created one clone who immediately went for the library. He had worked on the rank marking of ANBU mask yesterday but had not memorized everything to the standard of Cat so had to go again today.

It was tedious and only very mildly interesting but Naruto had no choice. Cat had promised him lots and lots of pain if he wasn't able to recognize an ANBU mask instantly at the end of the week. Today was already Monday so Naruto had time but given the vibes the agents were giving, he was definitely not procrastinating.

The real Naruto hurried down the hallway toward the start of the "Warmer" where he met Tiger, Cat, and Dog waiting for him. The blond bowed.

"Hello sensei. I hope I'm not late."

"You aren't. We monitored you and you were efficient enough for a recruit. We need to get some out of bed sometimes so you did better than some," answered Tiger. "How does your body feel?"

The blond scratched the back of his head. "Uh, my muscles are a little sore."

"Only a little?" Tiger asked, a strange edge in his voice.

"Ha yeah. It's weird because I've never been sore before," answered the blond without thinking too much.

Naruto immediately regretted saying that as he felt the waves of pure, unaltered malice and anticipation coming from Tiger. The blond gulped.

"Training is going to be so good." The male operative muttered while chuckling like a corroded door hinge, his usual monotone turned into a psychotic whispering.

"Ne, Sarge, can I have the real him today?" Dog asked, the same vibes of utter viciousness radiating from her frame.

"No, he is mine," cackled Tiger again, this time rubbing his hands.

"Quiet you two, he is not a toy you get to break, we're not T&I." Cat intervened.

"That was my second vow," answered Dog distractedly.

Naruto recoiled and shuddered as he felt large tears roll off his eyes, tears that somehow spilled from the eye-holes in his mask. "Someone save me." The blond whimpered.

"Alright, enough. Naruto, one clone with Cat, one with Dog, and the real you with me. Don't try to switch with a shadow clone, they don't make it up the Warmer. Go."

Naruto nodded, whipped his crocodile tears, and crossed his fingers to cast his jutsu.

"Shadow Clones Jutsu."

In a puff of smoke, two copies appeared and ran to the ANBU they were attributed to.

"We need to work on silent casting, you're way too loud blondie," remarked Dog, who was cleaning her ear with her pinky.

"I'll handle that but not today," answered Tiger before Naruto could express himself. "Now let's go."

Cat and Dog disappeared with their clone in tow and only Tiger and the real Naruto stayed.

"I'm going to run the Warmer like I do normally. If you try and follow me, you'll probably fail and exhaust yourself but it's your decision. Your first goal is to run. You don't walk, you run. Your second goal is to never stop. Your third goal is to make it in three hours. See you at seven fifteen." The ANBU said in his normal unflappable monotone before taking off at a speed Naruto could not hope to match.

The blond sighed, took a deep breath, and stretched a little. Five minutes later, he felt ready enough to attack the Warmer. Naruto engaged himself on the ramp, immediately feeling the intangible weight settle on his shoulders. As he started running, he realized his body was seemingly heavier than normal. Naruto wasn't sure what exactly the fuinjutsu manipulated to make him feel so but it had to be one fine piece of sealing art.

Falling into a comfortable pace, the boy thought back to the day before. Training had been hard but satisfying. The weirdest thing had been processing the transfer of memories given by his clones. He had been sitting in a lotus position, assimilating the meditating clone's experience with the process and trying to emulate it. Naruto had realized two things.

First, the experience transfer was not seamless; it felt like dredging old, jumbled memories at the forefront of his mind. Naruto would readily admit he wasn't an unsurpassable genius but he wasn't an idiot either. Trying to remember how to do something _you_ did not really do yourself was confusing. The blond hoped the process would smoothen over time.

Second, meditating was incredible. Naruto had immensely enjoyed losing himself in the raging flow of his own chakra. It was an exhilarating ride, as internal and mystic as it was, and it was fast. Naruto loved going fast. It was weird at first to simply relax and let his chakra carry him rather than forcefully direct it but when the boy had realized the fun that could be had in simply riding the flow, he had let go without too much trouble.

Tiger had complimented him on getting it so quickly but had chalked up a good part of Naruto's success to his lack of proper chakra control. The blond did not have too much of an ingrained reflex of absolutely controlling his life energy, so it made meditating easier. In turn, knowing his own chakra flow would help Naruto develop his control better.

Then, around noon, the clones learning chakra control with Dog and kenjutsu with Cat had eventually dispelled, feeding Naruto's mind with conflicting memories of trying to stick on a slippery slope while swinging a wooden training sword. His arms had spasmed as they automatically wanted to repeat to swinging motion again. It had been one freaky second.

The blond rapidly lost all precise notion of time. He wasn't too worried about making it in three hours; he was running after all, quicker than Tiger and he had been walking the day before. For maybe one hour, the boy jogged up the Warmer at a steady pace. Suddenly, the pressure he felt on him considerably lessened and he accelerated. This was the respite he needed to complete the run under the three hours mark. The blond passed a few shinobi as he ran faster.

For a while -Naruto could not be more precise- the pressure was gone and his body stopped weighing more than normal. It allowed the boy to reach the next segment of the course easily, where gravity once again seemingly doubled.

The course alternated between sections where gravity was normal and the air flowing and sections where gravity was definitely doubled and the air felt like jelly. They were random in length and began and ended without any warning. Approximately two hours in and Naruto was once again breathing hard and feeling his legs burn. The shinobi he had passed had caught up to him and passed him, showing no sign of exhaustion. Naruto understood he was missing something here but he did not know what.

The blond mentally shrugged as he wrestled with his breathing to bring it under his control. It was only the first time he was properly running the Warmer; he would figure it out eventually.

Eventually, an exhausted Naruto reached the exit door. He had not even the beginning of a clue on how long he had run. Tiger was waiting for him, arms crossed on his chest.

"Three hours and ten minutes, Recruit. You fail."

Breath ragged and legs burning, Naruto did not even have the energy to feel contrite. Hands on his knees, the blond nearly collapsed when Tiger hauled him by his shirt.

"A soldier never sits," the ANBU drawled in his monotone. "They stay up and stand straight. It's better to recuperate anyway."

The masked blond nodded and tried his best to calm his heart and regulate his breathing.

"What is the most important thing for a soldier to have, Recruit?"

Naruto panted but looked up at his sergeant. "Endurance." The answer had been given to him just yesterday.

"Why?"

"A soldier must… Be able to alternate between slow… Long situations and short… Intense ones."

"Correct. Now Recruit, how does a soldier achieve that?"

Naruto started and opened his mouth to answer "training" before he considered the question carefully. He had taught Konohamaru how to prank by deconstructing one lone, complex problem into many simpler ones. It was something Naruto prided himself in because it allowed for the careful planning of the best pranks. Yet when Tiger had given the boy his spiel on endurance and whatnot, the blond had assumed it was all about training. Apparently not.

The obvious answer _was_ training of course but it was an answer any run-of-the-mill ninja would give. Naruto was in ANBU now and the animal-masked shinobis were supposed to be anything but run-of-the-mill.

So, training thought Naruto. The boy turned the answer in his head. It was general and absolutely not helpful. The boy needed to look deeper into it. What was underneath the run up the Warmer? What was its secret?

"Sergeant, can I ask you a question?"

"You are in training, of course, you can," answered Tiger immediately.

Naruto felt himself grin behind his mask. "There is something I don't get about running, sergeant." The blond said before he realized how stupid that sounded.

Tiger absolutely did not chuckle at the masked blond's claim. "So you are telling me you don't know how to run?"

Naruto's cheeks reddened behind the blank porcelain and he rubbed his head in embarrassment. "There is a trick to running the Warmer, sergeant." The blond mumbled, pouting.

Tiger's not-a-chuckle stopped and the ANBU nodded. "It is a good observation and there is a trick yes but I won't give it to you yet."

"What? But why!"

Naruto barely had time to raise his arms to block the punch that threw him on his back.

"What did I say about outburst? Get up"

The blond grumbled silently about slave-drivers and crazy instructors, stood back on his feet, and took a big gulp of fresh air, massaging his right forearm to numb the pain.

"I won't give the trick to you because it is for you to figure out. If you want to join ANBU, you need to be able to take a problem apart and solve it."

Naruto kept rubbing his arm for a second, the pain vanishing slowly, and thought of his instructor's words for a second. The blond grinned.

"But if you face a problem you can't answer, it makes sense to seek help."

Tiger nodded. "Good. You're starting to learn. I still won't give you the answer but I'm not your only resource." The ANBU said in his unflappable monotone. "Also, do not forget that sometimes, you'll have to solve a problem alone because support is too far away to help," finished the man.

Naruto nodded. It was true. ANBU did run the very rare solo missions of Konoha. Everything else was done in team. The blond suddenly impacted his open left palm with his right fist. Tomorrow, he would simply run with another Recruit. Maybe they had cracked the code already and Naruto could possibly deduce it by observing them.

There was also the library. Maybe there was something about running in there. Naruto shook his head. About endurance training actually. The goal was to train his endurance to a new level. The blond was supposed to be a stamina tank yet somehow the Warmer was affecting him like none other of his run did. He had to think about it.

Or he could ask Cat and Dog but if Tiger was not answering, they probably wouldn't either.

"Alright, it's been five minutes, let's go," beckoned the masked man.

Naruto nodded and followed the ANBU to the training ground of the third company. Other ANBU were already doing things that ANBU did: training themselves to the ground in a very extreme manner. It was seven in the morning and the blond could already see blood flowing. He shuddered a little.

"Create a clone for meditation training," Tiger ordered the boy who obeyed immediately. A second later, a clone was sitting in a lotus position on the ground, regulating its breathing.

The man beckoned Naruto over a training dummy. It was a wooden construct in the vague shape of a human with four arms. There was a pump and a complex hydraulic mechanism inside that allowed for the dummy to flail widely and randomly at a potential user if they were in range. The arms were weighted with lead, ensuring that any hit was painful.

The day before, Tiger had made him do eight-counts until Naruto was literally drenched in sweat, alternating with jogs around the training ground and short pauses. They had worked one hour on his kihons -apparently, katas were useful for mental strength but not much for combat application- to ascertain Naruto's basic technical level before going back to physical exercises.

"Today, we'll begin training your taijutsu for real."

The blond deflated very slightly. He would have preferred ninjutsu. Ninjutsu was cool. Ninjutsu would go so well with his mask and his -yet to come- cloak. It took a second to remember he was in ANBU and that ninjutsu certainly would never be flashy. Naruto knew as well that his taijutsu was subpar. Not terrible by any mean but it needed training.

The blond was abruptly hit by an idea. Maybe he would be taught some super taijutsu style? Naruto started to nod excitedly but said nothing, not trusting his voice not to "burst out" and not wanting a vicious punch from his instructor.

"First, we will establish something clearly. What you learned in the Academy was not a martial art." Tiger declared in his monotone.

Before Naruto could question the man, the ANBU simply continued. "What you were taught was a combat sport. You practiced punching, kicking, blocking, and moving in a safe environment. You had rules and you sparred with a partner."

The boy nodded. He could accept that, for the simple fact that it was true.

"You're in ANBU here, so we'll have none of that shit," said Tiger, his voice containing a sudden edge.

Naruto started slightly at the curse word but stayed silent, rooted by the rare intensity and seriousness coloring Tiger's tone.

The man coughed in his hand before continuing. "You'll train your kihons against a punching bag that'll actually punch you back and you'll see that our kumites are the real deal. We bleed, we break bones, and we sweat and the only rules are the referee's words."

The blond gulped at the prospect of having to break bones before his mind unhelpfully supplied to him he was the one who would have his bones broken for a while if he were to spare against Tiger. No, not to spar; to fight. Naruto gulped again.

"Now, there are many styles of taijutsu but they can be classified in two big families. Some are called external and rely on breaking the opponent, while the others are internal and rely on using the opponent's strength against them. Foolish men go around and pretend they have the best style of all. They are all liars. The best style to exist is the ANBU style. Do you know why?"

Naruto shook his head no, still muted by Tiger's scary tone.

"Because it was invented by our founder and it's a style called whatever works to kill the bastard in front of me."

A small part of Naruto's supplied unhelpfully that it was a very long, impractical name and for one second the blond nearly exploded in laughter. It passed quickly when he was blasted with a wave of something that froze him. His breath caught in his throat and the word seemingly disappeared around him. The only things left were the yellow, animalistic eyes of a predator staring him down. The eyes of the Tiger.

For a second, Naruto thought he was going to die and his life flashed in front of his eyes. The rewind did not progress far as a powerful punch socked him on the side of his mask, hard enough to make his head spin just as his legs gave out under him, taken by a swipe. The attack shook his fear-induced trance.

"What the hell?"

Naruto had to roll out of the way of a kick that still grazed his sides painfully. Before he could get up, Tiger grasped him by the shoulder and socked him again in the chin this time, nearly knocking him out, before the ANBU lifted Naruto by the front of his shirt. In a flash, the ANBU twirled a kunai in his free hand and plunged it in Naruto's upper left leg. The man watched as Naruto tethered on the edge of consciousness for an instant before the pain of the stab suddenly flared and was registered by his brain.

"Argh!"

The grip of Tiger tightened on Naruto's shirt and the ANBU approached his head from the blond's to whisper in his ear.

"Whatever works. No hesitation. The enemy is distracted by the ridiculous name of your taijutsu style? Pulverize him. He is downed? Pulverize him again to make sure he is fine dust. He is? Then stab him to make sure the dust is dead." Tiger all but menacingly growled into Naruto's ears, causing the blond to subconsciously gather his limbs in a fetal position.

"Got that, recruit?"

The blond gulped audibly and nodded frantically. The ANBU removed the kunai from Naruto's leg, wrenching a small grunt of pain from the blond and signed a few mudras until both the man's hands glowed green. The cut, despite being relatively deep, was already sealing itself.

"You're a jinchuriki in addition to being an Uzumaki. The cut will not stay open long," explained Tiger, his clinical monotone back in place.

Naruto was going to ask how his instructor knew before he remembered the man was his instructor. Of course, he knew of Naruto's abilities.

Which was funny really because Naruto himself, while being aware he healed unnaturally quick, had not known until five seconds ago that it was due in both parts to his heritage and the demon in his guts. A minute later and his leg was good as new.

"Thanks, sergeant." Naruto thought safer to thank the man properly. The ANBU was the one responsible for his injuries in the first place but it only meant he could inflict them again and leave Naruto to bleed by himself. The blond did not really know if he was supposed to be angry at the lesson. The way it was delivered was brutal sure but it was effective. If Naruto got one thing from today, it would be that "anything goes". It was a painful lesson but the blond had always learned better when it had some form of impact on his body.

He had learned the explosive tag very, very quickly for example.

Tiger looked at his charge and cleared his throat. "Now the first step to fighting deadly is knowing how to move. Whether you want to stand your ground and punch your opponent into oblivion or dodge, you need to be solid on your legs and capable of switching quickly between rooting yourself to the ground and dancing around."

Naruto accepted the explanation. He was no taijutsu specialist. If the man wanted him to learn how to move, he'd learn how to move. He'd have loved to learn some ninjutsu, of course, but he did not want to run the risk of getting stabbed again. Ninjutsu would come in due time and taijutsu would do.

"How do I train that, sergeant?"

Tiger fished something from under his cloak -it was just as unnatural as Konohamaru's scarf- and threw it at the blond. It looked awfully like a jumping rope. Naruto sputtered, looking at the object in his hand. He was not going to rope-jump like some little girls did in the park, right? That'd be too embarrassing.

"Jump," ordered the ANBU, deadly serious.

Oh Flame, he was! For a second, the blond considered throwing the rope back to the man and asking for ninjutsu training instead but started jumping when he saw the gleam of a kunai. Right, whatever works.

* * *

Naruto-clone followed Cat back into the same dojo another version of him had been the day before. This clone jutsu was useful but incredibly confusing sometimes. Once again, the woman agent unsealed a wooden sword that had the same shape as a chokuto. Using a real blade was just asking for the clone to dispel itself by accident.

Cat presented the clone with the wooden sword. "The same as yesterday," said the ANBU simply.

Naruto-clone nodded and took the training sword. Today, he would once again learn how to step correctly. Apparently, using a sword was more about moving right than waving your sword arm around. If one could move quickly enough, they could surprise their opponent. Naruto-clone was only holding the fake chokuto to get used to having a weight in his hand.

Cat had shown the previous him an easy strike to associate basic displacement with sword movement but the ANBU had told him that as long as Naruto could not move to her liking, he would not learn anything more advanced.

She had ended her presentation with a very convincing demonstration where she had struck a training dummy with the exact same strike, moving fast while doing so; very, very fast.

The boy took a simple stance, his right foot shifted slightly in front of him, his sword held vertically in front of him, the tip inched forward. The chokuto was mainly a one-handed sword with a blade shorter than a katana's. Apparently, they were used within Fire Country for various reasons, the first being that a katana was just a little bit too long and encumbering to fight efficiently in the country's dense forests. The chokuto's shorter blade limited the risk of it being caught by stray branches To minimize the risk, the style Naruto was being taught the basics of emphasized thrusting rather than slashing. It was a style that was quite useful in narrow places in general, like say, the hallways of a noble's palace an ANBU had to assassinate for example.

The katana was mainly the weapon of the samurais from Iron Country, a place that did not have the same forests Fire Country had and way more of the iron ore necessary to forge all kind of blades.

Naruto-clone pushed with his left foot and stepped in, trying to synchronize the extension of his arm and his thrust with the fall of his right foot. The impact was supposed to increase the strength behind the entire strike. The blond replica breathed out deeply and returned to his previous position. It was a bit more than four in the morning and he would do it until dispel.

* * *

Naruto-clone, second iteration, followed Dog back to a room that was already the blond's worse nightmare. The exercise seemed innocent enough at first; how difficult could climbing a round slope be. Even without one's hands, even if the slope was slippery, it had to be a piece of cake, right?

Wrong, very wrong, of course. The rocks tilling the floor were so perfectly smooth, the blond's sandals could find no purchase. Dog had obviously told him the day before that chakra was the key to success but Naruto had yet to figure it out what exactly he was supposed to do. The point of the exercise was to use his feet only and not his hands but then what? It was difficult enough to even send the chakra to his feet but how was he supposed to _manipulate_ it once it was there?

Of course, the blond had tried yesterday to climb simply by pushing formless chakra out of his feet, it had not worked. The only result he had obtained was that, if he pulsed too much chakra in one go, he would be blasted off his feet. It had potential has an attack but it did not help him climb.

Not to mention that Naruto-clone was a chakra construct itself. The fact he had difficulty manipulating chakra while being made of chakra was beyond weird and opened metaphysical questions he absolutely did not want to think about. The original would be killed if he dispelled too soon. Or roughed up at least.

Focusing in the swirling life energy within him, the blond directed it to his feet and pushed through the soles of both his feet and shoes. How could he climb? Slowly, he lifted his right foot and stepped up the slope, only to slide down.

Naruto-clone sighed. If Tiger and Cat were guiding him with an iron hand, Dog was different. The ANBU, a girl Naruto was certain, was unhelpful. The blond did not know if it was a test of some sort - possible - or if she was simply not interested. The boy scowled a bit under his mask. He certainly hoped it was a test. She had been ordered to be a teacher after all. The replica turned to the ANBU who was sitting on the edge of the large bowl-like room.

"You wouldn't have a clue for me, Dog-san?" The blond asked, a little peeved and mildly hoping annoyance wasn't showing in his voice.

The ANBU shrugged. "It depends. A clue about what?"

Naruto stretched his lips in a forced smile under his mask before remembering the ANBU could not see it. "About this exercise." This time, annoyance had been clear in his tone.

"What is your question exactly?" The teenage girl answered, nonplussed.

"How does that work?"

The ANBU hummed and drummed the fingers of her right hand against her mask. "I told you, you just have to push chakra and stick, newbie."

Naruto-clone just gave the ANBU a deadpan look behind his mask. "And how do I stick exactly?"

"With chakra."

The replica felt a vein throb on his forehead.

"That's not an explanation."

"Not my fault you're too stupid to get it."

The blond sneered before he clicked his tongue. "Tch. You're just like everyone else." He mumbled before turning his back to the ANBU.

She was like all those teacher at the Academy who would not pay attention to him when he would ask a question or send him out because they deemed his questions stupid. Of course, Naruto could not have expected all three of his instructors to be different. That two of them would teach him properly was already good, he supposed.

"What do you mean like everyone else?"

"You answer nothing. Whatever, I'll figure it out," answered Naruto-clone while waving the question away, not turning to look at the girl.

Again he focused on his feet. How could he climb? He had to think outside of his usual box here; he could not use his hands and he did not have access to any kind of tool here. According to the instructions given the day before, he had to stick to the tiles using chakra. Easier said than done given he had no idea how to mold his chakra to make it sticky.

From what he knew about hand signs, he would go with Snake but it was not like hand sign theory was an exact science. It was just as much superstition as it was tried truths so Naruto could not be sure he would obtain any kind of result.

"Sticky sticky sticky…" Mumbled the clone, absorbed in his thoughts. "Like glue maybe?"

It was an interesting idea but he had no clue on how glue worked nor how to imitate it with his chakra. The clone rolled his eyes; if only the stupid ANBU would answer his questions. Focusing his mind again on the glue idea, the blond explored it mentally for a minute before deeming it useless anyway. When people glued two things together, the idea was that those two things would not come apart. His objective was not only to stick to a surface but to also climb it. If he glued his foot to the wall, it would contradict the second part of his task. Gluing his foot only to un-glue it a second after seemed highly inefficient. Still thinking, the blond tried his best to imagine other options.

"Or hooks. Many of them," said the clone to himself, still whispering.

The clone kept himself from facepalming. Hooks weren't going to help him, chakra was not solid after all… The clone once again had to fight his instincts to slap himself. Of course, chakra could be solid, he was tangible proof of it. The blond groaned.

Suddenly, the fact chakra, which was supposed to be an energy, had a solid state, baffled him completely for a second and caused his mind to swirl with the implications of this realization. The blond had not really realized what it meant to create a shadow clone. Energy was not supposed to be solid, right? He had been too limited in his imagination apparently. What could he do with it? And what were the other possible states of chakra? The clone lost himself in his thoughts before a cough from the ANBU called him back to reality.

"What are you doin' you newb? You are supposed to climb."

The blond bristled for a second before he clicked his tongue. "I'm thinking and maybe I have something so if you could just…" Naruto-clone waved his hand for a second, searching for his words. "I don't know, just keep ignoring me, that'd perfect." The boy eventually huffed.

The ANBU appeared nonplussed again -it was difficult to tell with the mask and cloak- and shrugged before returning to whatever it was she was doing. Reading a little book with a blue cover apparently. The blond cocked one eyebrow as he saw what he thought was a ripple of some sort on the cover but ignored it as it disappeared almost immediately.

Going back to his musing, Naruto-clone breathed in deeply. So hooks it would be. In a sudden second of brilliance, the blond decided to get rid of his shoes to avoid shredding them. He nearly slapped himself again when he remembered the shoes, like everything else when it came to him, was made of chakra.

"Urgh, whatever," muttered the blond, intent on not dwelling on the weirdness of it all, and focusing on the chakra he had pushed in his feet. He needed tiny little barbed needles, hundred, thousand of them. His plan was for the hooks to sink in the smooth surface and hold his weight.

Several hours later and his brow marred with sweat, Naruto-clone realized that his endeavor was easier imagined than done. He had tried to form the hooks he had in mind but they were too large and too jagged: they broke the tiles rather than sink into them and left marks. It had prodigiously angered the ANBU which had of course angered Naruto in turn. If the girl did not want to give him an answer then she had to accept him experimenting. That had shut the masked teenager up and she had allowed Naruto to continue after stating another rule: the goal was also to not break anything.

Suddenly, it was noon and a clock rang to signal lunch was served in five minutes. It was time for Naruto-clone to dispel. He was nearly out of chakra anyway.

* * *

Lunch looked a bit like breakfast. Tiger led Naruto to the cabin in the training ground and gave the boy a bento, a bottle of green liquid -the goo, as it was called by other ANBU- and a fruit. The bento was simple: rice, some meat, and vegetables. Naruto was honestly too hungry to be picky so he ate his greens without complaining. He had tried the day before and all he had received for an answer was a punch to the face anyway.

The blond made short work of the food, eating in silence like the other masked ninjas. He was not too keen on speaking anyhow. Any time spent to save his breath was time well spent, especially after spending the larger part of the morning jumping rope, jumping rope on one foot, jumping rope while slaloming between hula-hoops, jumping rope while dodging kunai or any kind of rope jumping Tiger could come up with. There were a thousand of ways to jump rope and some were really impressive.

His lunchbox finished, the blond sat in a lotus position near the meditating clone and, after nudging his replica to tell him it was time to dispel, plunged in the flow of his own chakra.

Receiving a shadow clone's feedback while meditating was a strange experience. As he was following and flowing with the stream of his chakra, Naruto felt a sudden surge in the river. The chakra of the shadow clone returned to him. This was the funny part, as the sudden addition of life energy quickened the flow. Then came the experience from the meditation; Naruto, already meditating felt like he was doubled within his own self for a second.

The memories of his clone infused the yin part of his chakra and strengthened it and as Naruto was bathing inside, he was thrown in a literal loop of him flowing with chakra within him flowing with his chakra...

Then the integration ended and the flow calmed down and with it the dissociation between his own present situation and his clone's.

Soon after came the memories of the clone taught kenjutsu then the experiments of the clone "taught" chakra control. With all this came mental exhaustion, excitement, annoyance, and many other feelings that were alien yet his; feelings that dissipated quickly and yet again balanced the yin attuned part of his chakra.

For one hour or so, Naruto just drifted along his life energy. The blond had been the first surprised that meditation, an activity quite antithetic to his preferred ones that usually included lots of motions, was so easy for him but the reason was quite simple. It actually included a lot of movement, only of a different kind. A movement that was internal, within himself, reserved for him. The blond honestly liked the ride.

He felt a hand touch his shoulder and opened his eyes. Tiger motioned with his thumb toward the training ground. Naruto breathed in deeply and stood straight, stretching himself. It was time to go back for more torture. After five minutes of stretching his body to reheat it, Naruto approached the ANBU, who was standing near one of the dummy. It was a construct of wood and metal, with four arms with way too many joints and a head painted to resemble an Oni. In Naruto's honest opinion, it was convincingly intimidating.

"You'll learn to dodge now. I'll activate the pump and the dummy is going to move hard, fast, and randomly," explained Tiger before pointing at the extremity of one of the wooden limbs. "This is lead. Lot of it. If you're hit, it'll hurt, a lot."

Tiger fished within his cloak a strange, leather helmet and a piece of plastic. "That," began the ANBU, holding the helmet high, "is to avoid concussion and that," continued the man while showing the plastic object," is to avoid losing any teeth. You wear both for the time being."

Naruto eyed the two pieces of gear and shrugged. If wearing the helmet prevented the loss of a few brain cell, he would wear it. The boy slipped the teeth protector under his mask and in his mouth and donned the helmet. It was bulky, obviously padded to maximize protection, and slightly uncomfortable but Naruto did his best to ignore it.

"Take a stance and shadow box for a minute to get used to what you're wearing. Be on guard, I won't warn you when I start the dummy." Tiger ordered the blond.

"Hai," answered Naruto simply, his mouthful of plastic keeping him from saying much.

For a minute or two, the blond shadow boxed the harmless wooden mannequin before he suddenly heard the telltale sound of high pressure water running within canalizations. As abruptly as advertised, the dummy flung one arm around, almost catching Naruto in the rib. The boy rose one arm to block the punch and grimaced under his mask.

It would hurt.

His eyes widening, the blond stepped back and rotated his body, presenting his profile to the now aggressive construct, dodging a vertical sweep that would have clubbed him on the head. With an angry sounding mechanical hiss, the rooted golem whirled, its four arms flailing like the chain of a kusarigama. The arm Naruto had just narrowly dodged caught him in the stomach and sent him flying two meters back.

His breath short and his abdomen aching, the blond heard Tiger's yell to "stand and go at it". The blue-eyed recruit took a second to think about his situation. He had not expected the dummy to be this quick. He would need speed and explosivity to escape the hits; something he had worked on for most of his morning. Naruto steeled his mind and, as much as he could, his body. Time to see if rope jumping was a good way to learn.

With determination in his steps, the boy entered the range of the dummy once again and immediately feel in a stance while keeping himself on the balls of his feet. Jumping rope was all about rhythmically springing up. The rhythm was only as complicated as one wanted it to be.

Right, left, up, and down, the blond weaved, ducked, and jumped around the mercurial training golem, receiving punishment more than once as he lost awareness of one or more arms speeding for him. Suddenly, the boy was sent sprawling, his chin hurting, his teeth dancing the gig, his eyes rolling, and his skull vibrating.

The blond hastily took a few step back to get out of reach. It would hurt a lot.

Before he could compose himself, he felt a hand push him firmly in between his shoulder blades, thrusting him once again in the maelstrom of flails that were the dummy's arms.

Barely catching his breath, the blond had to take one strike directed at his head on his right forearm and another one directed at his left ribs on his left elbow. Pain exploded in his left arm and Naruto swore he could hear his bones creak. The blond sneered and growled, his features set in granitic determination.

It would hurt a lot but he learned better that way, right?

Beaten black, blue, and bloody, Naruto was thrown on his bed, close to seven hours later, by his instructor. Tiger had made him fight the training dummy from hell for the entire afternoon, varying the pressure -and thus the speed of the attacks- at random. When the boy had collapsed, beaten into a pulp, the ANBU had cut the water flow and allowed Naruto to leave the training ground.

The boy had collapsed halfway down the Warmer, after two hours of a wobbly, exhausted run-walk. Tiger had picked his charge up and simply dropped him on roo two twenty four.

Through the haze of pain, exhaustion, and sleepiness he bathed in, Naruto did not hear the man's whisper as he left.

* * *

"So, what is the assessment?" Tiger asked to his two subordinates after dropping his blond charge in his room.

Cat decided to answer first. "He has no particular instinct for the blade itself but he… Well, his clone works hard enough. He won't redefine kenjutsu but he will be dangerous. And he got the basic step already. It shows excellent coordination."

Tiger nodded and turned toward Dog who shrugged.

"His chakra control is terrible and he doesn't get vertical walking."

"I see," said Tiger before stopping, thinking about his ANBU's precise words. "What do you mean he doesn't get it?"

Dog shrugged again. "I told him to stick with his chakra but then he asked me how he was supposed to do it. A bit stupid if you ask me."

"Are you sure you understood his question?" Cat interjected suddenly.

"What'd you mean?"

"He is not stupid, so he asked you a question you didn't understand. Either because he formulated it wrong or because you didn't want to understand."

Dog clicked her tongue. "Tch, what is there to explain in the first place? Tree walking is the basic, if he doesn't get it he doesn't belong here." The teenage ANBU proclaimed in a mix of annoyance and haughtiness.

"He was recommended by Dragon-sama in person-" began Cat before Tiger interrupted her.

"He can run the Warmer in a little more than three hours and he spent five hours boxing the dummy." The male ANBU spoke in a monotone, reducing the two other ninjas to a stunned silence.

A minute of absolute stillness later, Dog croaked in disbelief. "What?"

"You heard me. For his first time against a dummy, he lasted five hours before _I_ told him it was over." Tiger explained to his subordinates before taking a deep breath. "And I pitted him against Ashura."

This time, it was Cat's turn to flounder with her words and express her strangled astonishment. "S-sergeant! Ashura is the second most dangerous of the training model! No recruit goes against one!"

"No standard recruit, no. He is anything but standard. It was a test of his capacities, both mental and physical. He is unrelenting and as much as his mind is quick, he truly learns by doing. He is still not done memorizing standard ANBU marking but I drilled him with rope jumping and he had it down in an hour."

Both female ANBUs listened to their officer, still wrapping their mind around what the man had just told them.

"Is he a Gai-wannabe?" Dog asked eventually.

Tiger shrugged. "Possible. Possibly much more. Now Dog, next time he asks you a question, you answer it. Are we clear?"

"Hai, Sarge."

* * *

When the morrow came, Naruto woke up feeling sore, hurt, battered, and frankly not in any shape to get out of bed. He got out still because he had a hunch Tiger would not see things the same way the blond did. It took careful movements and patience and several wince of pain but Naruto successfully dragged himself to his bathroom, where his mirror unkindly reflected his bruised self.

The hot water of the shower considerably alleviated the pain and once the blond was fully awake, he realized he was not tired. His body hurt, sure, but there wasn't the veil of exhaustion weighing on his eyelid nor binding his limbs. His muscles and his wounds were simply not yet healed and causing him a pain he wasn't used to.

The trip to the cafeteria was quick and much like the day before. Buffalo-san did not talk much despite the still enthusiast greeting the blond gave him and the food was just as unidentifiable as the day before albeit tasty. This time though, Naruto sat with two other recruits, their blank masks identifying them as such.

"Mhh… Hello." The blond greeted as warmly as he could.

One recruit just nodded and focused back on their meal, not interested, while the other returned the greeting with a monotone "good day".

Acutely aware that time was passing, Naruto wolfed his tray of food ghoulishly and was nearly finished before he spoke again.

"Excuse me, senpai?" The sudden question from the blond made the two other recruits left their head. "Is it okay if I run the Warmer with you two?"

The silent one shrugged, apparently not interested in the least while the other simply nodded. "Sure."

Naruto smiled behind his mask and bowed his head. "Thank you senpai." Preparing himself to finish his food, the blond was hit by a sudden bout of inspiration. "Uh I… Know fuinjutsu, a bit of it," began the blond.

This caught the attention of the two recruits and the one who had done the speaking inched forward. "Yeah?"

"If you need a sealing tag or something, I can do it. To repay you for running with me, you know?"

"You know explosive tags?"

Naruto positively grinned behind his mask and fingered his chest with his right thumb. "Eh, of course, I do, 'ttebayo!"

"What yield?"

"All three range," exclaimed the boy proudly, referring to the low, medium, and high ranges, the three classifications in Konoha for explosive power.

The two older recruits looked at each other, their hands twitching for a few seconds before the loquacious one turned once again toward Naruto. "We check the quality first and if they are any good, we'll bank on this favor, sure."

The boy gave the man a thumb up and gulped down what was left on his tray. The two older recruits followed seconds after as Naruto met with Tiger, Cat, and Dog. The blond was given the same set of orders and his clones, with an addition of one also going to the library for personal research, disappeared where they were supposed to.

"Ready to go?" The taller recruit asked the blond as they finished their warm up.

Naruto nodded firmly. "Lead the way."

The rest of the week went by in the same fashion for Naruto. He would wake up, still bruised from the taijutsu training, a bit before four in the morning, eat a breakfast made of various stuff he could not really identify save the fruit juice, send clones to work with Cat, Dog, and in the library and jog up the Warmer with the two older recruit he now called senpai.

He had been left in the dust rather quickly on the first day but had somehow caught up to the two ANBU in training during one of the easy parts of the run. He had thought they had slowed when in fact he had accelerated. He had deduced running faster during the easy portion of the Warmer was not the trick to gain on your time. Then, gravity had doubled again without warning and his two senpais had left him in the dust.

It was the day after, on Thursday, that the blond came to realize regularity was the key. The reason the start of the Warmer was a high gravity portion was in order for the runners to set a pace. A pace, Naruto had come to understand, was not simply a speed; it was an amount of effort put into running and it included breathing. When a rhythm was found, it was best to keep to it rather than mess it up by accelerating or slowing down.

The realization came in handy for all his other activities. The lessons with Tiger were intense, painfully so, but satisfying nonetheless. The man held nothing back and ran the boy through the proverbial gauntlet. The positive side of things was that the blond could already tell he had progressed. He was lighter on his feet thanks to rope jumping and much more conscious of his immediate, personal space thanks to the dummy.

He had not sparred the four-armed monstrosity though. Tiger had pitted him against easier, two armed golems.

Being punched repeatedly by the weighted arms of the mechanical dummy was an excellent motivation to increase his dodging. The very random motions of the Machiavellian invention kept him on his toes and taught him to stay aware. Knowing how to breathe efficiently also helped greatly.

His kenjutsu was coming along as well. He had gotten the stepping technique taught by Cat down and now he had to combine it with moving much like he did during his taijutsu lesson. As of now, he still often tripped on his own feet with each attempt. It was a new way of moving that was yet to become natural for him.

The blond had finished learning the ANBU marking with two days to spare and could now differentiate what each color, symbols, and other flourish meant. He had immediately been tasked with learning the ANBU sign language.

His other clone sent to the library had looked around, hoping to discover an idea on how to stick to a surface. Among the many things Naruto's replica had found, one book on insect and spider, written by an Aburame in collaboration with an Uchiha, validated the blond's general idea of hooks.

The problem was that he had yet to manipulate his chakra finely enough to create them and so was stuck to sliding down the bowl over and over again. He had tried to ask Dog again about a hint, anything, and to his surprise, the teenager had tried to give the boy some clue.

The discussion had been long before the ANBU had truly understood what Naruto needed. The boy wanted to have a feel of how the chakra was supposed to be molded. Frankly, Dog had been stumped for two days before giving the boy a small ball of uncooked bread dough on Friday.

Naruto-clone had spent an hour just playing with the sticky yet malleable material before concluding it wasn't the most efficient way to go at it. Replicating the biology of spider was much more difficult but Naruto expected more efficient results.

At noon, the boy would eat in the training ground after integrating the meditating clone's memories. After lunch, he would meditate himself for one hour in order to assimilate the memories of his four other clones before going back to whatever Tiger had in store for him, often until nine in the evening.

The meditation exercise was bearing fruits as the headaches had greatly reduced over the week and the integration process had become actually more and more efficient. It was also something the blond definitely enjoyed. Knowing the way his chakra was flowing within him made him feel whole in a way he could not really explain.

The constant training had turned into a demanding but not unpleasant routine for the boy and Naruto was at a loss for what to do when Sunday, his resting day, came suddenly.

* * *

**A/N: I hope you enjoyed. Training, I think, is difficult to write and this is the reason this update took so long. Even in the best fics, training can feel to me like a grocery list. The author check things off of it but there is no real learning. While I'm not sure my chapter isn't just that, I hope it is at least entertaining. Thanks to all who answered the poll about the ranks. It is very close so ultimately, I'll use a mix of English and Japanese. Finally, I read a review stating the similarities between my work and "From Academy to ANBU". While it certainly kickstarted the writing, if I must give back to Caesar what belongs to him, then "ANBU boot camp" was also a big source of inspiration. Go read both, they are worth the time! That being said, similarities won't stop there but they are in now way a disguised attempt at plagiarism. Just remember that a lot has been written for Naruto and that absolute originality does not really exist. Best writing.  
**


	6. Chapter 6 Answers

**A/N: Chapter 5 gave me my 100th review and my 500th follower so as thanks, here is a little chapter. I hope you enjoy.**

* * *

Naruto had been careful to deactivate his alarm the day before. He had shut it off in the morning actually, knowing full well he'd be too tired and bruised to think about it in the evening. So Naruto did not really understand why his eyes opened with a start nor why he rolled out of his bed, his heart beating faster than what was allowed. Barely awake, the boy eyed his clock and his sleep-addled mind panicked as he read it was already four.

"Tiger is gonna kill me," Naruto whispered before he darted for the bathroom, where he established a new personal record of speed showering.

It was only once he was out of the bathroom and dressed that he realized today was Sunday. His rest day.

The blond groaned and slapped his forehead. The week had been enough to establish a routine and his body, already used to be awake around four, had decided to get things started without his conscious authorization. Naruto groaned once again. Now that he was showered, dressed, and sleep had been chased from his mind, he knew he would not be able to go back to sleep.

He wasn't tired anyhow, just sore and relatively less than he had been at the beginning of the week.

The blond put his mask and ran to the refectory. He breathed a sigh of relief seeing breakfast was still being served. Even on Sundays, the ANBU corps never slept for real.

"Hello, Buffalo-san," greeted the diminutive ANBU recruit.

"Hello recruit."

Naruto smiled behind his mask. He had graduated, through the week, from a dispassionate "good day" to being called "recruit". It was, in the blond's opinion, a step in the right direction. The boy sat at one deserted table and wolfed his food down, his mask slightly up and his face masked under a partial transformation. He was becoming quite the adept of this specific jutsu.

He had always been good with it but now, it had reached a level where he could reduce to a minimum the ripples caused by the interaction of chakra with a solid object.

His food finished, Naruto rubbed his mouth with the palm of his right hand, thinking deeply. He had counted on sleeping in to kill at least part of the day but this part of the plan was now out of the proverbial window. The blond sat still for a minute. He had not been given any specific instructions for today, just reminded that using the various training spots without supervision was forbidden. Tiger had also given him his official backstory for his week of absence.

It was way too early to really go anywhere to do anything. Naruto ultimately shrugged after looking at himself. By force of habit, he had donned the clothes he used for training; he could always run up the Warmer. That would kill nearly three hours and he would see then what he would do.

Having given his tray back, the masked blond found himself at the start of the Warmer. Taking a deep breath, Naruto stretched for several minutes before he felt ready to attack the upward slope of hell. The blond set his pace carefully, something demanding but sustainable, and allowed his thoughts to wander.

How would he occupy himself today? It was the question worth a million Ryo. The blond could visit Konohamaru but his visit would be probably cut short if the young Sarutobi had homework to do or any other responsibility from his clan. Maybe Naruto could send a shadow clone to know if Konohamaru's afternoon was free. The boy nodded, satisfied with his plan. This way, he would even avoid seeing the Hokage in person. He had no wish to see his grandfather. A week, even as busy as this particular week had been, was not enough to digest everything.

Of course, Naruto had to go get himself some ramen. It had been a week of healthy, shapeless food -if surprisingly tasty- and the blond craved his favorite dish. Also, he was missing seeing Ayame. It was rare for him to be gone for an entire week without visiting the Ichiraku.

He also wanted to explore the library further. It was a mine of information waiting to be revealed. Naruto doubted everything was of interest to him but the most improbable thing could be found there. The blond would have never placed a bet on the fact there were books on entomology. Not everything was ninja related but when Naruto had asked the ANBU librarian about it, the man had answered that sometimes, nature was one of the best source of inspiration to develop jutsus of all kind. As such, it was a noble endeavor to seek to understand how things in nature worked.

The librarian, a very old man if his white and light grey hair were to be any indication of his age, had told Naruto that the famous water condensation technique of the Nidaime had partly come to the man by observing how water condensed on spider's webs.

How the man had developed a technique that was still infamous today simply from observing spider's web was beyond Naruto right now but the blond surmised that, much like he himself tried to replicate the ability to stick to surface from the same animals, the Nidaime had experimented while using his observations as a basis.

The library problem would easily be solved by a team of two or three clones.

He could also work on his calligraphy and write some haikus while he was at it. Time spent working on fuinjutsu was never time lost after all. Plus, he had a letter to prepare for someone and he had to prepare a bit of sealing for it. That reminded Naruto of his promise to his two senpais; he had to give a clone the task of creating a few samples for the two recruits who had agreed to help him.

His mind busy with various thoughts, the boy did not really notice when he reached the top of the Warmer. Naruto frowned when he realized he had no idea how much time it had taken him to run up the slope but then smiled when he assessed how he was feeling. His legs were warm but not hurting and it was with the satisfying heat of a workout well done. His breath, while quickened by the effort, was not ragged nor short. He had certainly progressed since the beginning of the week. He still lacked speed but the jog was nowhere as exhausting as it had been at first now that he knew he had to be cleverly conservative of his energy.

After thinking about it as much as he could during the week, Naruto had concluded that the reason he could lead chunin on a chase for hours was that the level of effort required of him was constant. It was the greatly varying levels of pressure that made the Warmer dangerous. The easy parts were meant to lure you into a false sense of security. At worse, the runner would become bold and accelerate and that would be their downfall as soon as the next high gravity portion came.

And Naruto had quickly noticed that whatever regulated gravity and air viscosity was affecting the length of the slope at random. One could not prepare for the Warmer or establish a map of it because the Warmer changed every day.

Regularity. It was certainly a valuable lesson applicable in taijutsu, kenjutsu, and chakra control. Naruto was sure it would impact other aspects of his training. It was one teaching the boy was intent on remembering.

Naruto stretched before frowning again. He did not want to go back down immediately -he had just run for nearly three hours after all- but he had to stay moving. His clothes, damp from perspiration, were starting to disgustingly cling to his skin.

The blond ran through a string of hand signs and the door to the outside opened. Tiger had shown him the mudras so that the blond would be independent of the man as much as possible. Tiger could run the Warmer in something like thirty minutes so while he waited for Naruto, the man trained.

Naruto found himself in the forest. Given how the sun rays were barely lightning the little clearing, it was around seven. The sun wasn't very high yet and could not be seen, hidden by the dense canopy. For a minute, the blond was at a loss as for what to do but it came to him quickly. He could work on his chakra control personally. He had yet to try the chakra manipulation himself.

The blond neared a tree and looked up its trunk. Trees in Fire Country were no joke. The colossus of wood standing tall in front of him, rooted firmly in the ground, was maybe four meters in diameter at its largest point and shot up to reach probably thirty meters.

And that was a relatively average specimen. The tallest titans of Fire Country, Naruto had read, could reach a height of up to a hundred meters while having a trunk so large it took dozen of men to circle it.

Naruto caressed the rugged bark and felt the relief against the palm of his hand. The valleys of the outer layer of the tree made for easy holds. Even without chakra and as long as hands were allowed, climbing up such a tree was possible.

The boy stepped back and crossed his hands in a seal he was become increasingly familiar with and create two shadow clones with a whisper. Naruto looked left and right at his two copies who simply nodded and approached the tree from various angles. The original blond neared the tree again and focused on his feet.

He needed small, supple needles, with barbs along the length and he needed a countless number of them. He knew it was not exactly the shape of the strange hairs a spider possessed at the end of their legs but Naruto wasn't exactly the size of a spider either. He had to compensate for his increased weight. That was something he was sure of.

For the following hour or so, Naruto tried to refine the amount of chakra sent to his feet and mold it in the shape he had in mind. Despite his best efforts, the boy kept sliding down the trunk, not able to stick to it even once. Frustration slowly rose and Naruto decided to stop his efforts before he punched a hole in the tree for his troubles.

It would not do to needlessly destroy a perfectly good tree in a bout of childish anger. Rather than letting his impatience boil down to violence, the blond choose to sit and meditate, plunging into the flow of his chakra.

A week of meditation had Naruto realize several things about himself. He had a lot of chakra, first and foremost. That he knew already and the reasons for it. What no one had told him was what it meant really beyond his ungodly stamina. His chakra coils were not developed enough to ensure control over the thrum of life energy coursing through them.

Normally, as chakra reserves grew, the ability to wield those reserves -also called chakra capacity- grew in concert. Chakra reserves got bigger with physical strength and mental experience and chakra capacity expanded with the enlargement of one's chakra coils. The natural goal of the body was to maintain an optimal "flow rate" so to speak.

In short, if the coils were too tight as was the case for Naruto, the chakra would flow too fast to be properly harnessed. It was like opening a tap with way too much pressure behind it. The problem was that the growth of chakra coils would come from training. The sealing of a massive chakra entity hadn't been taken into consideration by biology. Naruto's chakra system was getting larger and larger by the day, forced open by his ridiculous amount of life energy, but so were his reserves due to his training. At this rate, the equilibrium could possibly never be reached.

Simply cycling his chakra through his pathways by meditating was a way to artificially enlarge the coils. It was a process rarely needed, as few ninjas found themselves in the same situation Naruto was in. It was also slow.

Naruto could feel the familiar rush of a clone dispelling and, a minute after, the rush came anew as the second clone poofed out. The assimilated memories did not bring the boy any joy.

None of the two replicas had succeeded. As the boy had mentally ordered, one had tried to mold chakra in a glue-like fashion and had actually, if momentarily, stuck to the tree. It only solidified Naruto's belief such a method would go nowhere. To take his foot off the tree, the clone had concluded after experimentation that he needed to either cut the flux of chakra to his feet entirely or mold the chakra again back to something featureless. Not really cost and focus efficient.

By imitating a spider's bristles, Naruto was hoping the natural motion of the foot and a simple flex of chakra would be enough to anchor and detach the foot to a surface. Meaning once the chakra was activated, the blond would not have to even subconsciously think about it.

Now if only his chakra could _obey_ and get into shape already. Naruto sighed and considered his problem. The glue was a way to go about it. A rough, inelegant solution but a solution nonetheless. The blond scoffed; he knew full well he would not be satisfied with it. It was half-assed and not properly functional.

Naruto Uzumaki did not take to all subjects with the same gusto but it would not be said that he did not see a problem to the end when he was faced with one that interested him. His studies in fuinjutsu had seen to that. Also his pranking.

The prospect to be able to walk on any surface and defy gravity presented simply too many potential applications to be ignored by the blond. Naruto resolved to simply try until he got it down. Giving up was not part of his dictionary after all and failing was key to success.

Fuinjutsu had also taught him that, repeatedly.

Opening his eyes, the Uzumaki stood up. The daylight was a little brighter but still, the trees masked the sun. It was time to run back down, have a shower, and change into something more relaxed.

* * *

A little less than three more hours later -the boy's clock showed quarter to noon when the blond came back to his cell- and Naruto was freshened, dressed in something definitely civilian, and en route to Ichiraku's ramen stand. A team of clones was wandering around the library, mask on, and a lone replica was in his room, working on his brush stroke and poetry. He had until eleven tonight to do what he pleased.

For the first time in a week, Naruto was wearing his _hitai-ite_.

He had exited the ANBU lair the same way he had entered it the very first time, seamlessly blending in with the flow of disparate civilians climbing up and down the Hokage monument. At this hour of the day and on this day of the week, they were mainly couples intend on sharing lunch in the park just above the hieratic heads. Sakura season was over and people were free to pick cherries if they could or simply enjoy the jasmine which had just started to blossom white. As he reached the end of the stairs, Naruto created a clone who scurried away toward the Sarutobi compound.

It took the blond half an hour at a leisurely walk to cross Konoha and find his way back to his favorite place ever.

"Hey, Teuchi-Jiji! Hey Nee-chan!" Naruto greeted with enthusiasm before sitting on a stool. The blond's entrance was ignored by the other customers. Everyone eating at Ichiraku's knew that _that boy_ had the favor of the owners.

Delicious ramen was stronger than short-sighted bigotry in this case.

"Naruto!" A joyful shout was his answer as Ayame Ichiraku whirled around, wiped her hands on her apron, and hugged the blond boy. "Where the Flames were you this week?"

Naruto returned the hug with a grin and scratched the back of his head at the question. "Eh eh, well, they kept me really busy at the Hokage Tower."

"The Tower? Why were you there?"

"Well, I'm hum… Kinda… Repaying Konoha for all my pranking?" Said Naruto in a questioning tone, index finger on his lower lips and eyes looking upward, as if unsure how to properly put it. "Yeah, I think that's how they call it."

Ayame guffawed behind her counter. "Ah ah ah, so they finally caught you huh? Well, it was fun while lasted, right?" The cook asked with a large grin.

Naruto answered with a smile on his own. "Sure. I'm a ninja now, I need to be serious, 'ttebayo!"

"Eh, I bet you won't hold a month without turning the Tower on its head," challenged the brunette.

"What? No way Nee-chan! I'm all serious now!"

"As if, you're just biding your time," claimed the older girl with a nod of her head, convinced by her wise words, before she smiled again. Deserting her various saucepans for a second, the girl propped her elbow on the counter to support her head. "So what do you even do there?"

Naruto waved his hand. "Eh you know, carrying papers, carrying messages, Hokage Tower stuff I'd say."

Ayame's eyes opened as large as saucers. "No way! And you haven't gone crazy yet?"

"Oy, Nee-chan!" Naruto exclaimed with a look of indignation and a fake pout. "I'm not that bad!"

"Sure you are, you can't sit still for a minute!"

His long meditation sessions came to the blond's mind and Naruto grinned widely. "Well, I'm way better now. And anyway, they let me have my work out, so I can burn some energy before my day begins," continued the boy, shuddering a little at the memory of his first run up the Warmer.

Ayame was ready to doubt Naruto's exploit when the boy's stomach growled thunderously, making the blond blush a little and rub his scalp while the girl giggled.

"Well, they don't feed you right apparently!" The cook exclaimed before she offered Naruto her version of the megawatt smile. "What's it going to be?"

Naruto flashed his pearl white teeth for the girl to see. "Miso ramen large with extra pork, 'ttebayo!"

Ayame stood straight and saluted. "Comin' straight up, Ninja-san!" She exclaimed before focusing on her kitchen.

"By the way Neechan, where is Teuchi-Jiji?"

The brunette groaned and rolled her eyes as she was cooking. "He hurt his back trying to carry a gas canister inside," Ayame explained with exasperation. Seeing the Naruto's eyes wide with worry she waved a hand. "He is fine, just, the nurse forbade him to do anything today."

"So he's not there?" asked the boy, somehow weirded out by the fact Teuchi Ichiraku was on leave. The old cook was always behind his counter, had always been and would always be. It was one of the truths of Naruto's life.

Ayame shrugged after sprinkling some spice in a saucepan full of simmering broth. "He can't sit still if he's here so I chased him off. He told me he'd go see mom and then maybe relax in a park somewhere."

The girl punctuated her explanation by ladling a portion of noodles in a bowl she then proceeded to improve by adding several slices of pork, a boiled egg, seaweeds, and various other greens of all colors. It took the experienced cook but a second to dress the dish perfectly, topping it with a naruto with a flourish.

"One miso ramen large with extra pork!" She clamored with a grin.

Naruto took the smoking bowl gratefully and gave his sister a large smile. "Thanks, Nee-chan, I'm really starving!"

Setting the dish in front of him, the blond inhaled the delicate aroma he was so fond of; the smell evoking many good memories, bright spots of warmth in an overall dull canvas. Naruto's smile dimmed and his blue eyes filled with a rare melancholy.

"You know Neechan, Jiji would never leave the stand if he didn't trust you completely." The blond said in a subdued voice, looking down at the steaming noodles. "It means you cook as well as him, you can be proud."

Naruto missed the blush that reddened Ayame's cheeks and nose as he broke his chopsticks free.

"Itadakimasu!"

With ringing thanks, the boy proceeded to inhale the noodles. Immediately, Naruto hummed in satisfaction.

"Ahhhh! That's the real deal, 'ttebayo!" The blond exclaimed after his first gulp before stuffing a slice of meat in his mouth.

"Eh! Of course, it is!" Ayame, having her countenance again, answered, tranquil pride evident for all to hear in her voice. "Give me some time and they'll become even better than that!" She boasted.

Naruto stopped in his noodly tracks and stared at his surrogate sister, blue eyes alight with mirth before he scoffed. "Pff, as if! You can copy your dad's well but do better? Not gonna happen!"

"Oh yeah?" The brunette asked, the vibrato of a threat in her voice so blatant it was obviously faked. "Well, it has a better chance to happen than you becoming Hokage!" Declared the girl, nose pointed upward and arms crossed on her chest.

The boy grinned before it faltered. It was an old game between Naruto and Ayame, to clamor their dream at each other's face and challenge the rest of the world to stop them. The brunette would swear to become the ultimate ramen cook and the blond would swear he'd become the Hokage to surpass all Hokage. Two dreams that had, without discussion, equal respect from both parties. Becoming the ultimate ramen cook was absolutely no laughing matter.

The exchange, the ritual almost, had taken Naruto out of numerous dark, downward spiraling funks in the past. His Neechan had always known how to give Naruto his smile back.

But today, the game had suddenly lost much of its flavor. Because today, Naruto could not claim he would become Hokage. He wasn't sure if he wanted to don the hat anymore. His reasons had been too frail, flimsy at best. He still had great respect for the position and what it entailed though and so refused to proclaim fakely. It wouldn't do.

"Naruto?" The slightly worried tone of Ayame brought Naruto back to the present. The blond looked up at the girl he called his sister, perfect blue orbs peering in light chocolate brown. His eyes widened at the thought. His sister.

For some strange reason, it was as if he was seeing her for the first time. Her brown hair held back by her kerchief, her eyes and her light smile, filled with slight worry for him, her dexterous hands, still delicate somehow despite the hours of work. She so readily called him Naruto-kun and accepted him calling her Neechan. She had so freely played with little him in the past and bantered with him now. She could so easily bring a smile on his face, even when all seemed so dull and impossible.

In an abrupt second of enlightenment, Naruto realized all this and more and thought back to what had been floating on his mind for a week now. The intense, demanding boot camp of the ANBU corps had relegated the concerns to the back of his brain but they were there. Those thrice damned questions: who was he, where was he going, what did he want?

He hoped to find a family in the ANBU corps but he suddenly remembered he already had a sister looking out for him as much as she could. Teuchi was an uncle, Iruka a cousin, Konohamaru a brother, and the Hokage a grandfather, as much as the blond was angry at him at the moment. It didn't feel wrong to look further but he had to acknowledge what was there. A wide, bright, pearly white smile blossomed on Naruto's face, closing his eyes shut as it spread from ear to ear.

He had already answered one question by joining ANBU. but another one was actually ridiculously easy to solve if asked the correct way. The boy suddenly brandished his fist out, startling the cook behind her counter.

"I don't know if I'll get the hat Neechan but I definitely want to taste your ramen once you're the best cook ever," said Naruto, his voice firmed up by unshakeable confidence. "So to make sure, I'll become the best ninja ever and I'll protect you! It's a promise, 'ttebayo!"

For reasons she could not clearly formulate, Ayame Ichiraku felt herself blush like she rarely had, stared at by the azure blue eyes of her little brother. Deciding that it wouldn't do to lose her cool, the brunette bumped fist with Naruto, allowing a megawatt smile of her own to grace her face.

"You know what it means if it's a promise, right?"

Naruto nodded seriously, keeping his fist pressed against Ayame's. "It means we don't break it Neechan."

Ayame nodded. "Absolutely. Now go back to your ramen before they get cold," admonished the girl with mirth.

The blond's eyes widened and he sat back down. "Aw shoot!" He exclaimed before quickly going back to vacuuming his bowl of ramen under the amused eyes of the cook.

"_You've really grown up, huh, Naruto?"_ thought Ayame with a fond smile before she turned her focus back to her kitchen.

* * *

Four cloaked figures were huddled together in a small room. One was seated behind a desk while the other three were standing at attention. It was very early in the morning and the normally impassive operators were all, some more than others, giving off the feeling they wanted to be done with it.

The absence of comfort did not facilitate their mood. In exchange for serving chocolate-flavored porridge, ANBU had to make do with relatively small offices. Money was not infinite after all and budget cuts had to happen.

The seated ANBU cleared their throat and, with the usual, distorted monotone, Dragon spoke. "So soldiers, what is the first-week assessment? Tiger, you go first."

The tiger-masked ANBU nodded. "Hai general." His voice ever controlled and professional, Tiger summed up his week with Naruto quickly. "Overall, he is chunin level in term of speed and endurance and his strength is coming along fast. At this rhythm, I estimate recruit Uzumaki will be at jonin level, physically speaking, in something like three months."

The declaration kept the room in silent contemplation before Dog shuddered. "That's too quick."

"It is," confirmed Dragon in their usual blank tone of voice. "Any idea how it is possible, Tiger?"

The ANBU allowed himself a second or two to gather his thoughts on the matter. He had obviously been thinking about his latest recruit's performances. From a purely physical point of view, Naruto Uzumaki was a monster, largely above what any chakra user his age should be. The exact passive and active effects of chakra on humans were not perfectly understood, not even by Tsunade Senju herself but the Greatest Medic in History had postulated some theories.

One, namely the "cultivation approach", tried to explain why ninjas had greater physical capacities than normal, even without actively flooding their system with chakra. When a human exercised, muscles would break down, triggering muscle growth, a process most effective during a period of rest. For a ninja, whose muscles were constantly fed chakra, the process was similar but with some differences. First of all, muscle growth happened undeniably faster. Second of all, it was also proven that chakra could and would alter muscle on a cellular level.

Muscle growth worked by adding more volume to muscle. It was certain that chakra also made the fundamental building brick more efficient, be it a conscious effort or a subconscious reaction. It was one of the bases for Tsunade Senju's super strength technique, one the medic had shared long ago.

How to properly activate the cultivation was still a very inexact science -something Tsunade _had _kept a secret- and how the passive process worked was all but unknown.

Tiger summarized all that to his general who only nodded and waved his hand. The ANBU wasn't surprised his general knew that already.

"What does this aspect of physiology have to do with Uzumaki, Tiger?" Dragon asked, _something_ bleeding in the monotone this time.

Tiger did not snort but did roll his eyes behind his mask. He knew, when Dragon used this voice, that the general knew the answer already.

"I believe the regenerative factor of recruit Uzumaki allow muscle growth to happen instantly. I also believe that his chakra is rebuilding his muscles entirely. Lastly, having a proper diet is bound to have some positive effects. Recruit Uzumaki grows stronger _while_ he trains, not after."

Dragon joined his fingers. "What makes you say that?"

"While recruit Uzumaki already gained more defined muscles, the ratio of muscle mass to strength is not consistent. By volume alone, recruit Uzumaki should be weaker than he truly is."

Silence once again fell on the room until Dog broke it, her voice a disbelieving whisper.

"Is that… Really possible, general?"

Dragon pressed his palms together. "Why do you think we consider jinchuurikis to be strategic weapons, operator? Much like ninjas are beyond what is possible for most humans, a jinchuriki is beyond what is possible for most ninjas. A jinchuuriki, trained appropriately, will always reach the S-rank threat level somehow."

Tiger gave no outward reaction to the statement, Cat swallowed with difficulty, and Dog opened her mouth to say something that died on the tip of her tongue.

"Now, before you allow fear to invade your heart, remember that recruit Uzumaki is first and foremost a ninja of Konoha. Is that clear?"

Three simultaneous, mechanical "hai" were the given answer. The general nodded and motioned for the assessment to continue.

"Due to recruit Uzumaki's high healing factor, I fear HSRB process might not work properly. I request authorization to triple the dose."

Dragon stayed silent for a pair of seconds before he nodded. "Granted but only under direct supervision. We don't want any accident."

"Hai, general."

"Continue."

"As far as skills go, recruit Uzumaki shows no particular talent and is behind what is expected of a genin. That being said, the determination and dedication he puts into his drills will ensure that his close combat will become feared. His mind is already used to thinking deviously and outside the box due to his old pranking habit. I intend to encourage him to apply it to combat in general."

Having said his peace, Tiger stepped back and Dragon motioned for Cat to talk.

The purplette haired woman stepped forth and cleared her still uneasy throat. "He shows no innate talent in kenjutsu but he is completely dedicated to a task if he is properly motivated, requiring normal guidance in my case. It took a week to get the basics steps and flow drills down which is within acceptable parameters. I feel like he is a curious boy but hesitated asking too much at first, a habit we are collectively," stressing the word, the operator shot a glance at Dog who fidgeted slightly. "Breaking him out off. By Friday, he wasn't showing this particular reluctance anymore in my case. To finish, I'm quite certain there is a gap in his learning ability. Anything physical is learned rather quickly but book smarts are harder for him to acquire. It took four days to memorize ANBU marking, rather than the average two. I am honestly surprised he can do fuinjutsu at all."

Dragon nodded. "It is supposedly in his blood. And fuinjutsu is not so much about book smarts than people tend to believe. If that is all?"

Cat nodded and fell in rank again as Dragon called forth Dog.

"So?"

The teenage ANBU fumbled a second with her words before she took a deep breath and looked at her commander. "Well... " She began hesitantly, unsure if there was any way for what she was going to say to make sense. "Chakra control is going to be difficult."

Dog paused a second and before anything could be asked she pushed on. "He has too much and his coils are too tight but that's… Not really the main problem."

"And what is?"

Under her mask, Dog bit her lower lip. She had thought hard and long at her sessions with the Naruto replica. How she had been at first, dismissive and frankly, angry. She had given her sweat and blood to Konoha for three long years after the Academy, working her ass off, before she had been promoted to chunin and noticed by the corps.

When a lone ANBU had knocked at the door of her clan's compound one fine morning, a little more than a year ago, it was a dream come true. She had always wanted to join the prestigious elite.

So the fact a snot-nosed, milk drinking brat, not even out of the Academy, dead last what's more, had been noticed because of his _pranking_ had Dog a bit peeved. A tiny, little bit, not much.

Truth was, she had been and still kind of was incredibly frustrated and angry at the "luck" of recruit Uzumaki. So jealous had she been that she had also refused to take into account what the files she had been given about her charge said. She had ignored the ostracism the boy was the victim of and the general unpleasantness his life was as a result.

She had been so angry she had immediately dismissed his incapacity to execute the vertical walking chakra manipulation as lack of talent and as proof that the boy had nothing to do in ANBU.

When Tiger and Cat had insisted she discuss with Naruto about the vertical walking exercise, she had, after putting her feelings aside for a moment, came to realize what could be a boon and a problem.

"This is only a theory but I think he doesn't... Understand chakra as we do?" said Dog in a questioning tone, still unsure of herself if she was entirely correct.

Dragon inched forward ever so slightly. "Tell me more."

* * *

Naruto had exited the ramen stand, contentedly stuffed with his favorite food, and directed his steps toward the Sarutobi compound. His clone had gone off a bit earlier, informing him that Konohamaru was free during the afternoon. Apparently, Ichiro was there also and Naruto could not wait to see his older friend. With some luck, they could all rope little Eiri into some mischief. The blond rubbed his hands.

The walk was leisurely, pleasant even, as the sun was shining high and warm yet the wind was blowing a cooly. Naruto ignored the sneers and the glares the passer-by were subjecting him to and enjoyed the rumors of Konoha's life. Sunday was a day of rest for most people but it did not mean the streets were any less busy. Sundays, especially in spring and summer, were the days the artisans would open the doors of their workshop wide to showcase some of their work, hoping to charm a possible customer enough for them to place an order.

Naruto was never allowed inside nor permitted to touch but he could still see the bright colors of painted potteries and smell the polished wood of pieces of furniture. He could hear hammers hitting metal against as many anvils, the smiths trying to convince farmers and ninjas alike that they forged the best tools and weapons.

For a second, the boy wondered if he would have to pay for his chokuto or if ANBU would fork out the money. Given his salary, he would not mind paying. And once he would have donned the proper, painted mask, the smiths would fold into four to please him.

It would be so different than having to negotiate endlessly for scraps. The boy shrugged the unpleasant memory away and continued his route toward the Sarutobi lands.

It took Naruto another half of an hour to cross Konoha back to the Tower, take the right turn, and end up in front of a red _torii_. The Sarutobi compound was not enclosed by walls, like the Uchiha, the Senju, or the Hyuuga compounds were, but by a simple fence that would not have stopped anything.

Not like walls could stop anyone in a village of ninja anyway.

The two kanjis for "Sarutobi", as well as the clan symbol, a vertical line supporting two horizontal, back to back crescents with all extremity but one ended by a circle, were engraved on a panel in the monumental door. Two massive bowls of granite were flanking each pillar, ashes still red from the flames they had contained during the night.

One black haired ninja in a very standard Konoha attire, his eyes underlined by kohl, threw Naruto a passing glance and a small smile and waved the boy in.

"Hello, Sarutobi-san." The blond bowed slightly. The Sarutobi clan had always been good to him, their patriarch first and foremost, and if all members weren't close to him, most were cordial or at least polite.

"Hello, gaki." The guard answered jovially before he hunched toward Naruto, his hand shielding his mouth in a scheming gesture. "Kurenai-san is still not over your stunt of last week. Don't get caught," whispered the man with a smile.

Naruto stifled a whine about women and their distinct lack of humor, something that made the man chuckle, before he thanked the guard with a grin on his own. "Hai guard-san, I'll flee on sight."

"You'd better. Now get in, Konohamaru-kun and Ichiro-kun are waiting in the eastern wing."

Like many compounds within Konoha, the Sarutobi domain was covered by the forest. Unlike most clan grounds though, the Sarutobi's were huddled against the cliff side, which meant one had to go up a slope to reach the living quarters.

Visitors also had to be wary of the monkeys. They had a tendency to steal things off people without them noticing. How could someone lose their pants and not immediately take stock of it was still beyond Naruto but the blond had learned quite a few tricks from the mischievous animals.

The pranking primates were never hunted though, as they were sacred for the Sarutobi. Something to do with the soul of their ancestors, Naruto had been told long ago.

Walking up the old, sometimes barely defined steps, the blond shivered a bit as he entered the forest, the warm rays of the sun masked by the canopy. Birds were chirping, a little stream was running nearby, and a gentle wind was blowing through the ghost tube, making them sing. Naruto inhaled deeply. The undergrowth always had this peculiar smell he liked. The smell of calm motion, peaceful cycle, natural balance. There was also this tinkling sound of a child laughing-

Naruto whirled around and caught the little hands of a giggling, head over heal Konohamaru who was trying to steal his headband. "Gotcha!"

The eight years old shrieked playfully when his older cousin, Ichiro, jerked him up and back on the branch the older chunin was hanging from.

"Damn it, Bro! You're too sly!" Konohamaru fake pouted from up in the tree as Naruto laughed and Ichiro ruffled his hairs.

"You giggle too much Ko! You need to be silent." The blond explained with the utmost seriousness. "How long were you waiting up there?"

The young Sarutobi rubbed his head. "Eh eh, we waited for an hour at least," grinned the boy, not a little proud to have maintained his ambush for so long. "Ren-san warned us you were coming though."

The guard, Naruto surmised. "It was pretty good though Ko." The blond complimented.

"I did all the work though," complained a deep, adult voice in a whiny tone. Naruto looked at Ichiro, who had just spoken. The older Sarutobi, Konohamaru's direct cousin was a tall, muscular teen who, like most males of his clan, had dark hair and eyes. On his chin, he had the shadow of a goatee and a mustache above his lip.

"You're a chunin Ichiro-Nii. If that was work for you then you need to get more muscles." The blond retorted with a smile.

"Oh yeah? I'll show you muscles!" The older Sarutobi asked wit a threat in his voice. With a fast leap, the ninja found himself behind Naruto.

The blond had already whirled around and was wrestling with the older boy to avoid getting a noogie.

"You little… Insolent twerp… Come get… What you deserve!" The Sarutobi huffed, exerting as much strength as he could against the younger boy to gain the upper hand and failing to do so, to his growing surprise.

"No way… Ichiro… Nii… Not while… I live!" Naruto answered, straining his arms to their limit to square against the older boy.

A minute of full force arm wrestling under the encouraging shouts of Konohamaru Sarutobi later, the two boys broke apart, panting and sore, hands red from each other's grip.

"How the Flamel… Did you get so strong!?" Exclaimed Ichiro, his dark brown eyes wide in surprise.

"Training is… A bitch… Nowadays," answered Naruto, a bit taken aback himself by the fact he could match a fifteen years old chunin in pure strength. Especially a Sarutobi, who were people known for being rather solid. Sure his face was redder than Ichiro without a doubt and his breathing more ragged but still. He was certain he had not been nearly as strong just a week ago.

"Yeah, I can believe that," Ichiro said after a pause long enough for the two to regain their breath. "So, ninja huh?" The boy asked with a gleam in his eyes before he winked.

"Hm, guys?"

Ignoring Konohamaru's call, Naruto faced his older friends and nodded, his blue orbs shining with the same mirth. "Yep."

"What team?"

"Bro?"

Resuming his walk up the stair, Naruto answered to the following Ichiro. "Ah no team yet," said the blond while rubbing his scalp. "I kinda assigned to the Tower for now."

"Oh yeah? Why?"

"Oy Ichiro-Nii!"

Without missing a beat at the now distant shout, Naruto kept going "It's punishment for all my pranks I guess," sighed the blond with a straight face.

The brown haired chunin shook his head, a smile threatening to split his face. "Ah, not cool, not cool." He answered, his tone far from sympathetic as it was vibrating with restrained laughter.

"If you leave me on this branch I'm telling Kurenai-Obasan!" Bellowed Konohamaru from afar, panic and anger fighting for dominance in his voice.

Naruto and Ichiro collapsed in laughter and slowly made their way back to the young Sarutobi they had mercilessly left stranded up his tree.

* * *

Iruka Umino sighed deeply as he sat at his dining table in front of a steaming cup of tea. The teacher rubbed his tired eyes and gathered his thoughts. It had been a week and on Monday, tomorrow, the chunin instructor would hand his first report to the Hokage. Infiltration and information gathering had never been up his alley and Iruka had taken the week to read up on old dusty manuals and other "how to" guides, to polish his skills. He had not slacked however and had gathered as much as he could from incriminating pieces of evidence.

The first surprise that was all but one, Naruto was not the dead last. That was not to say the blond boy was especially brilliant but he was not obtuse either. While the boy shone at his brightest during physical activities, he was not a dunce when it came to more traditional academic subjects. History and Geography were not his forte, neither were mathematics and chemistry was the blond's nightmare but anatomy, chakra and ninjutsu theory, battle planning, and astonishingly, classical literature, were strong points that had never been properly acknowledged.

Second surprise and this one had been real for Iruka, Sasuke was not perfect. Certainly, the Uchiha was talented and had a solid brain inside his skull but some of his tests over the years showed little mistakes -nothing much but enough to not get full mark- that had been ignored, never corrected. Iruka had grimaced at that. That had without a doubt inflated the already bloated head of the boy.

The third surprise was that Naruto and Sasuke were not the only victims of this subtle sabotage. Hinata Hyuuga was under-marked, Ino Yamanaka had gotten a boost, and the teacher could keep on going. Sometimes the approach was even subtler. Kiba Inuzuka for example had never been corrected when he had repeatedly handed ludicrous battle plans that would have gotten him killed in real life. The only clan heir that had not been subjected to anything had been the Aburame.

Iruka had been terribly angry for all about ten seconds when he had discovered that before reason and cold logic told him it was exactly what whoever was behind the sabotage was after. If the Aburame were behind it, they would have sabotaged Shino to cover their traces. They were too experimented to allow such a basic mistake to happen and were undoubtedly loyal anyways.

The overall result, whoever was the culprit, was that a large chunk of the education of clan heirs had been undermined. The implications were terrifying. First, it was a very long term kind of sabotage, with the idea that if the future leading figures of the village were incapable, the village itself would be incapable. That would be for those who would survive. One possible, logical step for the future was to engineer ambushes that would target specific genin squads, hoping to kill or cripple an underprepared member or two. Second, it was a subtle kind of sabotage. It was not about blowing something straight up, it was about manipulating ninjas when they were most vulnerable: young and in training. Making them overconfident or on the contrary destroying any self-confidence. Third, it was pretty much impossible to identify the puppeteer without catching the spies first, as any major enemy of Konoha would benefit from such an action. And Iruka was certain there were numerous spies, as it was simply too much work for Mizuki to falsify all the tests alone.

And Iruka was not certain it was limited to Naruto's class. In a mere week, he had not had the time to check any more papers then he had but it could quite possibly be the emerged tip of a much larger iceberg.

The teacher had tried to remember any suspicious pattern his colleagues could have shown over the past years but nothing had jumped to his mind. It was not unusual for an instructor to stay behind in the Academy to grade papers, prepare materials for the lessons of the coming day, or any teaching-related activity. Even Iruka would be suspicious if that was to be his primary criteria for suspicion.

It was not at all difficult to enter the Academy past its opening hours anyway. Naruto had proved it numerous times by pranking the Flames out of his various teachers' desk and cabinet. Iruka smiled at the thought. The small blond boy had been warning them all for years that their security was riddled with holes and all the people could see were lousy pranks with colorful and messy aftermath.

Without the means of T&I, the teacher was limited in what he could do. He had no way of checking the financial situation of any of his colleagues, nor order a complete background check, and least of all straight up torture them. Iruka did not think he had the necessary amount of guts anyways.

He could establish a pattern though. He had noted all the date of this year's tests and, thinking hard, the brown-haired chunin was convinced he could get something. It was only a matter of time.

* * *

When Naruto departed from the Sarutobi compound, the sky was already losing its orange and purple tint the evening had given it and getting dark. The blond had a wide smile eating his face and a spring in his steps as he circled around the Hokage Tower and took the stairs climbing up the Hokage Mountain.

Konohamaru was working hard on dreadfully boring Academy stuff to get going, was already planning his pranks for his first year of ninja school, and was trying to work around getting Udon and Moegi, the member of his "elite corps", involved. The little brown haired boy had also fished from inside his scarf his latest advancement in fuinjutsu and Naruto, who had more or less taught him, was proud.

Ichiro was good and healthy thank you very much, had a ridiculous goatee to emulate his uncle Asuma that Naruto totally had not mocked, and was on his way to Tokujo promotion in a year or so. He was also dating apparently, according to Konohamaru at least, but the blond could not get his older brother to spit out who the girl was.

Eiri was a babbling little girl who had enrolled the older boys into her games with glee. Her cousins and Naruto had obliged, or caved in front of her puppy-eyes as Asuma had taunted, playing mount, monster, or magician alternatively.

Then Kurenai had arrived with her and Asuma's daughter, Mirai, and Naruto had had barely a second to coo at the adorable, ruby-eyed infant as the fierce kunoichi had immediately given her girl to her husband and started chasing the blond around, eventually trapping him in a genjutsu.

To finish, there had been cookies and milk before their little group had moved inside to watch a movie. It had been an awesome afternoon all in all. It had been so peaceful, so gentle, so normal.

So precious, so full of love, of happiness.

Naruto shook his head and walked along the little trail leading to the small cabin backed against the cliff that dissimulated the entrance to the ANBU barracks. After donning his mask, His knuckles rasped thrice against the wall and the blond waited for five seconds before knocking again twice this time.

The secret door opened and Naruto stepped back into his violent ninja life without a shred of hesitation. He had things to protect and he needed to become strong to achieve that.

* * *

In a room carved like a bowl with a floor smoother than silk stood a cloaked figure. Up and down, the ANBU was walking, defying gravity by sticking to the curved, slippery walls of the room.

Dragon abruptly stopped pacing and propped up a foot against the opposite knee. Intently, the general stared at the sole of their foot from behind their mask, as if trying to decipher a message only they could see.

"How do I even do it?" The general mused aloud, the normal monotone colored by two notes of both amusement and disbelief.

Dog's report had been quite interesting in many ways, more than even Dragon had anticipated. From recruit Uzumaki's incapacity to perform a simple chakra control exercise and movement drill, questions had been raised that no one had even thought of asking.

Was there a different way to do vertical walking? If yes, was it more efficient? And above all, how did traditional walking even work in the first place?

Apparently coming to a decision, Dragon suddenly exited the room and walked down endless hallways, all identical, back to the cramped office of the ANBU commander.

Dragon's eyes weren't enough to solve the problem this time but the general had, among the ANBU soldiers, a number of operators who were perfect for further, keener observation. Hastily, the ANBU commander scrawled a message in black on a red post-it before slapping it on top of the secretary's desk.

The man would address the code red immediately and Dragon would be able to observe further.

_Code B-lambda operator required ASAP in office._

If that did not work, Dragon could always ask his old friend afterward. Hiruzen Sarutobi was not nicknamed The Professor for twirling his thumbs all day during their shared youth.

* * *

**A/N: I hope you enjoyed. It was easy writing this and I had fun. What's more, I think that I'm way better at it than training sessions. The savvy readers will notice that Naruto had his "precious people" moment. As much as I like the idea itself, I dislike how it is done in the manga. Naruto meets a random guy (girl?) and after a minute they discuss life philosophy? I can't read this scene anymore without laughing because it is so out-of-place. "Blabla strength?" "Yeah!" "Blabla precious people!" "Sure!" "Okay, bye!" I think it has more impact if it is triggered by someone close to Naruto.**

**Anyway, remember that I feed on reviews (or alternatively, your soul) so leave one!  
**


	7. Chapter 7 Opening

**AN: I hope you enjoy. I'd like to thank you all for the response. While I do not answer all review, I do read all of them, of that you can be sure. They give me strength, Genkidama style.**

* * *

It was barely five in the morning but Hiruzen Sarutobi was already seated in his trusty armchair. It had been a week since the incident, a week since his surrogate grandson had joined the ANBU, and a week since the Sandaime's nights had been longer than five miserable hours. Behind the venerable mahogany desk created out of the Shodaime's mokuton, the Hokage was distractedly preparing his pipe, his eyes lost on the desk's surface. The wooden plate had all the tells of constant use. Each wear and mark had their story. There was a large gash, for example, that Hiruzen remembered had been carved by his sensei the Nidaime, in the only instance he had seen the otherworldly calm Senju angry.

It had been terrifying and Kumo had regretted starting the second shinobi war, even if Tobirama Senju had not come out of it alive.

Right now, the desk was covered with various papers. Not the overwhelming quantity the Sarutobi liked to complain about, he had secretaries after all and the administration served its purpose, but a fair amount of reports were still occupying too much space for the aged Hokage to be content.

Paperwork was not what was truly unsettling the veteran shinobi. While it was an annoyance to review the -mostly excellent- work of competent people he trusted because it was an honest waste of time, the Hokage was not upset because of that.

Hiruzen knew Naruto had visited the Sarutobi compound just yesterday and the blond had insisted on not seeing him. Naruto's shadow clone had been polite. The Hokage sighed and allowed regrets to assault his heart for a second before he put a lid on his emotions. The old man had heard the blond's demand for ramen and jutsu loud and clear but he also knew Naruto likely needed time to work through his feelings.

It did not sit well with Hiruzen to let it happen. He had averted his gaze with his three students in the past, allowing one to become an old teenager with confidence issues, one a gambling, bitter drunk, while the last had betrayed the village and turned missing-nin. He still did refuse to look, not finding within himself the courage to face them.

It was all it amounted to; courage. Courage to acknowledge acts that pointed to a truth no man would be keen to admit. Despite all his strength and qualities, despite all his success, Hiruzen Sarutobi had failed, arguably where it had been most important.

The old man felt like a puppet hung by too many strings, entangled within them. He had never had the courage to face Jiraiya and admit that yes, Orochimaru had been his favorite. He had never been able to face Tsunade and admit that yes, her medic program would have been possible but he did not really believe in it, too trusting of Konoha's traditional superiority to consider warfare changing endeavors. He had never been able to face Orochimaru to tell him it was not his fault Nawaki had died and Tsunade was devastated.

Would it be a repeat of that with Naruto? Was it not already happening? He had weaved lies after lies, refusing to reveal the truth, at first to protect the boy, then for fear of being hated. He had not had the courage to face a twelve years old who had all the reasons in the world to be angry all the while asking from the same boy to find within himself the strength to endure the scorn of his home village.

Hiruzen rubbed his tired eyes. What had the Nidaime seen in him this fateful night? Had Hiruzen's own boast of being able to ward off the Kumo shinobi been just that? Where was the bravery he had felt coursing his veins then, ready to face certain death so that his precious teammates could escape with their lives?

His sensei had called it the Will of Fire but had it truly been it? Was the philosophy that had guided Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha a glorified rewording of the needs of the few against the needs of the many? Why would the kanji of "Will" be so similar to the kanji for "Shinobi" if that was so simple? The Professor knew full well it was not so.

Why was Hiruzen having an existential crisis this late in his life? It was a moot point now! He had been committed to his various mistakes and he could not solve the mess he had created.

"Naruto-kun," provided a helpful part of his mind.

The sacrifice of each individual person was expected but the village was a whole and it gave back what had been lost or at least endured with you. Why had he allowed for it to be different for Naruto? Had his Will of Fire truly been extinguished?

"That'd be fair. I'm old. I'm ash. I should be the soil from which the young tree draws his strength," thought the Sandaime before he grimaced. If things were like that, why had he allowed for Naruto to live this life? When had he grown complacent to allow the hate to fester and grow?

Naruto had always been welcomed by the Sarutobi clan, Hiruzen had made sure of that but couldn't he have done more?

He had facilitated the good of the many. He had reduced the Will of Fire to a travesty of what it really was. He had accused the villagers of losing their own fire the other day but he had done nothing to rekindle the flames. He had accepted the distrust, the fear, the anger to grow. The simple thought of such a treatment happening to any of his sons, daughters, or grandchildren was chilling and yet, by staying put, he had permitted it to happen to Naruto. Why? How?

A memory he had thought buried jumped to the forefront of his mind. The glazed, mad, fiery red eyes, the bloodlust that had him, The Professor, rooted in place, the powerful swing of a tail, obliterating all that stood under it, the rain of corrosive, ichor-like chakra, the shake of the earth, the brimstones and ashes. The towering form of the Kyuubi, devastating, all-powerful, unstoppable, looming over Konoha like a man would over an insignificant ant-hill.

Hiruzen felt shame and horror well within him and let the unlit pipe fall to the ground as he took his visage within his hands. In spite of all his discourses, had he been just as afraid as his citizens? Why had he allowed Naruto's life to happen? For some petty, misguided need for revenge? Hiruzen refused to look deeper, did not dare to peer into the somber gunk that layered the bottom of his soul.

He feared to discover what reasons had pushed him. He hoped it was resentment fuelled by grief and not something even more callous.

Hiruzen tore himself from his own thoughts, refusing to confront them. Bile rose up his throat. Once again, he lacked the courage to face someone, only this time, it was himself. Haggard, the Hokage's gaze fell on one of the four portraits lining the right wall of the office. It was a color photo of a young man sporting blond, spiky locks, two azure blue eyes, and a light smile on his sharp face. The Hokage Hat was resting on his head.

"Below courage, there is nothing huh, Minato?" The Sandaime whispered to himself, his visage contorted in a grimace of anguish. The old man let out a sigh. "Well seems like you were wrong for once. There are regrets just below."

Hiruzen let his eyes fall back lamely on the desk. The windmill was starting to move again, his time was nigh. Would he depart for the pure lands without ever fixing anything? Would he become a ghost chained to this earth by his remorses? Would he be the first of his line to be denied the honors of joining Son Goku's retinue?

The words of Dragon echoed in his head. "You are a coward." Hiruzen felt anger replace shame at the thought. He was. In the books, he would be remembered as The Professor but to those who knew him, he would be just that. The Coward. The man who could not bear to fail as he was so accustomed to success.

The man who had manipulated one boy he pretended to see as a grandson in order to ensure loyalty and obedience rather than order the village he had absolute authority over, all because it had been _easier_.

The old man's fist crashed on the desk and he growled behind clenched teeth, his closed eyes crying bitter, burning tears.

It was time to make things right. It was time for the Coward to disappear so that only the Professor stayed.

A knock at his door informed the Sandaime his first task of the day was beginning shortly. With a rare fire in his eyes, the Professor freshened himself and called for his visitor to enter.

* * *

Naruto got up before his alarm. The blond sprung out of his bed and lost no time going through his morning routine. A few minutes later and the blond, his mask on, was down in the cafeteria eating his porridge, a stack of tags in front of him. One of his clones had done a good job the day before and had created some seals for Naruto's masked senpais to sample.

The exchange was quick. The two older recruits were suitably impressed by the tags and after a rapid discussion, it was agreed on that Naruto would provide a batch of twenty tags to both, all medium yield.

It made Naruto wonder for a second if he could not draw a universal exploding seal with an option to select the desired power. The blond made a mental note to explore the possibility and wolfed down his breakfast before joining the start of the Warmer.

Unsurprisingly, Cat, Dog, and Tiger were waiting for him. The fact Dragon was here with an owl-masked operator was unusual. All Naruto could say about the Owl was that she was a woman and that she had peculiar dark-blue hair. Tiger spoke first in his unflappable monotone.

"Today, Dragon-sama will accompany you with Owl here to your chakra control session. Nothing to worry about," began the tiger-masked ANBU. "As it is your second week and because you're you, we have decided to up your training pace. You'll create three more clones than usual in order to send two with Dog, two with Cat, and two at the library. Your second library clone can study what he wishes. Once you find something that holds your interest, you'll inform me and keep at it until you can demonstrate some of it."

"Does bettering my fuinjutsu studies count?"

"Affirmative. Lastly, you'll create one last clone that you will send, without the mask, to the Hokage Tower. It's time you begin your official desk job."

Naruto paused at that, slightly taken by surprise. "I thought my desk job was a fake?"

"At first yes," interjected Dragon, "but we thought it unwise to cut you entirely from the shinobi population. You won't have to deal with civilians, as promised. When you reach the Tower, your clone will give this scroll to the guards," said the general while producing a small scroll from nowhere.

Naruto shrugged. It was not ideal but he wasn't going in person anyway. And shinobi were less hostile than civilians, at least outwardly. His shadow clone could survive that. "Alright, buntaichou. Anything else?"

"No. Let's start our day."

His bunch of clones created and under care, Naruto started his set of stretches. He was a bit surprised to see Tiger stay with him but when he asked, all he got was a grunt. Shrugging it off, the blond finished his warm-up and started running up the slope.

Dragon watched with interest as two diminutive blond recruits were attempting to carefully gather chakra to the sole of their feet in order to climb up the smooth surface of the bowl. Discreetly, the general signed an order to the operator standing next to him.

There was the telltale surge of chakra announcing a jutsu, a whispered gasp, and then nothing. After a minute, the Owl signed a message back to her commander who nodded.

"Recruits, one of you attempt the traditional sticking technique."

The two clones looked at each other for a second and one shrugged and designated himself with a thumb. They knew better than to question the general. Their tasks assigned, one replica still tried to create the chakra manipulation they were going for while the other simply molded his chakra into glue.

Owl let another small gasp escape her, which surprised Dragon a first time, then the operative chuckled lightly, which nearly _floored _him. People from Owl's clan never laughed, it was a law of the universe much like the Nara were lazy or the Akimichi portly.

The commander signed again but was requested to give another minute to the ANBU. Dragon once again nodded and waited. Suddenly, the owl-masked operator started to walk down the bowl's walls slowly, while carefully watching her feet. After a few seconds and one last glance at Naruto, she nodded, seemingly satisfied, and signed a message to her officer.

The two exited the room under the curious looks of the two replicas until Dog reminded them to get to work.

"So Owl, what did you see?" Dragon asked with their distorted voice.

"It is just a theory, general, but I think I identified several elements."

"Go ahead."

"Hai. First, this recruit possesses an incredible amount of chakra yet his tenketsu are closed off."

"Closed off?"

"Hai, general. As you know, tenketsu are the regulation vents of the chakra system. The byakugan sees the chakra that naturally escapes from them. This recruit's tenketsu are abnormally… Tight, if you will."

"So not sealed completely?"

"Hai, but… Constricted. I have no better word. I can barely see any chakra venting from them."

"And it affects his capacity to push chakra out of his body?"

"Exactly, but that is only one piece of the puzzle."

"Explain."

"His chakra is incredibly… Potent. It's also greatly unbalanced toward yang. Nothing unusual with that but it is the first time I see it to this extent. Yang chakra is supposed to affect the substance of things, right?"

"As much as we know, yes."

"When he attempted to climb up with the natural technique, he molded his chakra in the same way I do. The difference is that while my muscle strength is enough to un-stuck me, his chakra is so potent, it's like he is glued firmly to the surface. His leg muscles cannot tear him free and he needs to deactivate the chakra flow entirely-"

"Which he already concluded would be highly impractical, hence the research for an alternative. Why hasn't he succeeded yet?"

"He is basing himself, whether he knows it or not, on the traditional technique. We do it by creating thousands of threads between our feet and the surface we want to stick to. Those threads are relatively large. He is going for hundreds of thousands of threads but much, much smaller."

"His small tenketsus stop him from achieving the necessary control?"

Owl nodded. "I believe so, taishou."

"Any idea as to why his tenketsus are… Atrophied like that?"

"Sorry but no idea. I've heard of genetic defect causing some tenketsus to be completely closed off but this… Ajar state of thing? Never." The operator answered, slightly apologetic.

"It's quite alright Owl, thank you for your service. If you have any idea that comes to you later, let me know. You are dismissed for now but I'll probably have a use for your service again in the coming days."

"I volunteered, general." Owl saluted solemnly and departed, leaving Dragon to his thoughts.

"Uzumaki will have to pay his doctor a visit, apparently." The ANBU mused aloud.

* * *

The run up the Warmer was strangely exhausting for Naruto this time. He had accelerated his pace one tiny bit to test how far along he was but at the end of the slope, his lungs were on fire, his legs were screaming bloody murder at him, and his whole body was apparently not happy with the exercise. He was sweating but it was only partially from the effort and he felt a little queasy which was weird because it was the first time it happened to him.

Naruto Uzumaki had a stomach made of steel and concrete, numerous perished cups of noodles had been witness to that.

"How are you feeling recruit?"

Naruto hesitated a second between a lying bravado that'd earn him a punch or some expletives about how positively shitty he felt, which would earn him a punch. A week with Tiger had made the blond a bit wiser as to what was allowed to be said and how, so Naruto settled for a middle ground.

"I feel sick, sergeant."

Tiger nodded, not surprised. "It means HSRB has truly begun."

Naruto pushed down a retch and swallowed the bile that tasted weirdly like iron and, knees wobbling, asked. "HSRB?"

"Harmful Substance Resistance Build-up. You've been poisoned since your arrival here, small doses, non-lethal. With your reinforced physiology, we had to triple the dose to make sure it had any kind of effect."

"Fuck," a now seriously greenish Naruto -whether it was because of the poison or the knowledge he had been poisoned was anyone's guess- answered.

Unsurprisingly, Tiger decked him.

* * *

Naruto-clone had searched the library for two hours without finding anything mildly interesting on fuinjutsu. Now Naruto Uzumaki was not one to brag…

Anyway, Naruto Uzumaki did not want to come off as arrogant like some raven-haired _teme_ but the few basic manuals present in the library truly were of no help to him. He was beyond them.

Fuinjutsu was considered the most difficult of all ninja art and if Naruto had to give a reason for that, the blond would actually give two.

First, fuinjutsu was not really a ninja art because fuinjutsu was not based on chakra. Contrary to ninjutsu, fuinjutsu did not require chakra to work. It could manipulate chakra, bend chakra, use chakra, often did a little of all three, but fuinjutsu was not chakra-based.

As extraordinary as it seemed, fuinjutsu was not a branch of ninjutsu. Ninjutsu, by using chakra, worked around the rules of the world, bending them sometimes but never truly going against them. Chakra was fundamentally energy and if fed enough energy, the universe was content to go out of its way to do your bidding.

Fuinjutsu was all about not having enough fucks to give and transcending what was normally allowed. For ninjas set in their way of viewing how things were supposed to work, it was a shift in thoughts process not many were ready to take. Insanity was frequent enough in the shinobi life to not risk it willingly.

It did not mean Fuinjutsu had no rules of itself, just that the set was different than for the rest. Why was that? Naruto could not tell for sure. Maybe it was the improbable, unnatural union between the freedom of poetry and the rigor of algebra. The impossible wedding broke the reality somehow.

And that would be the second reason. Fuinjutsu was just as much a science, each prong and squiggles needing to be exactly where they had to be, as it was an art, the effects of a seal being dictated ultimately by the haikus contained inside its matrix.

That would weird out anyone, most people demanding to see where the logic in that was, what were the rules, how was the rhyme. Naruto mainly found it funny to write stupid haikus, encase them within three prongs and a circle, and see what would happen.

More often than not nothing. The rumors about failed fuinjutsu experiments ending up in a big explosion were just that; rumors.

Fuinjutsu was all about sealing after all, quite literally. It meant that the base of all fuinjutsu was the idea that something would be placed _inside_ something else. There was rarely a reason for anything to go up in flame.

The dangerous part of fuinjutsu truly came with the idea that if an object was _inside_ a container, said object could come out. Violently. It was then the risk of spontaneous combustion rose to higher levels.

In any case, Naruto knew all that already and was growing increasingly disappointed at the fact there seemed to be nothing of interest on fuinjutsu in the ANBU library. The books were beginner guides at best, mainly about mimicking a seal more than understanding them, and the boy did not need that. The basics of the sealing art were not that complicated once one accepted a square could be a sphere and a non-euclidian dodecahedron at the same time. Naruto did not need the basics, he was already capable enough to create his own seals, 'ttebayo! He needed new ideas, new insight, new forms, and new rhymes.

Naruto was growing desperate when an old scroll caught his eyes. Covered in dust, masked by spider webs, somehow outside of the tube of plastic that normally contained scrolls, this particular one had an aura of importance. The aura things had when they were important and Naruto wasn't supposed to touch. The Forbidden Scroll had had the same feeling about it.

His eyes darting left and right, the blond scanned the aisle he was in. No one. The boy's reluctance caved in in approximately three seconds. Carefully, Naruto reached for the rolled length of paper and opened it on the table. Immediately, his eyes shone.

"The Haikus of Mount Myoboku. A Gathering of Toad Poetry." The blond read aloud before his eyes took in the first poems, written in neat handwriting. Naruto's blue orbs widened and a smile graced his lips.

He had just found a treasure, there were no two ways about it. Alien toad poetry meant alien fuinjutsu with alien effects.

* * *

Undercover-Naruto-clone entered the perimeter of the Hokage Tower at half past four. He showed the scroll to the guards, was searched nonetheless -"procedure" had drawled a bored chunin- and was allowed to enter -legally this time- in the sanctuary of Konoha. The place where all decisions were made, where the high command was sat, where the Hokage ruled from.

The Tower was red, nearly as large as high, round, and overall, frankly not elegant. In Naruto's enlightened opinion, the main tower looked like a big piece of jelly and the two smaller towers on each side were not better. If he had been older, jelly would not have been the first thing that would have come to his mind.

The Communication Tower immediately to the left next to the complex, a white, lean, spiraling column with a blue roof was much better.

The scroll in his hands indicated that Naruto-clone had to go to the mission assignment desk. The large room, where ninjas of Konoha would go to receive their missions, was located within one of the secondary tower.

To the right of this tower was the Academy. The mission assignment desk was in the building in-between the main tower and the school. There was probably something symbolic about it but it escaped Naruto for now.

The boy followed the signs of various panels -at least the place was properly indicated- and entered a large rectangular room with a wooden floor and a wooden ceiling. Large sliding windows replaced two consecutive walls out of the four. In front of those windows ran a long, L shaped desk behind which were seated a number of chunin already doing their thing.

Naruto-clone swallowed uncomfortably when he saw that the Hokage was also seated behind the desk. The blond replica groaned, as low as he could. He groaned again, loudly this time, when the old man motioned for him to come.

Dragging his feet, the clone approached the one man no Naruto -be it the real one or a replica- wanted to see right now and bowed a bit stiffly.

"You called for me, Hokage-sama?"

The chunins in the room momentarily ceased their activity. The blond Uzumaki was well known for barging in the room the Hokage was in, wherever said room was, to play one of his pranks, ask for ramen, demand Hiruzen train him, or all three simultaneously. The blond Uzumaki was also well known for calling the Hokage "Jiji", and if the reactions to that among the ninjas varied, it was definitely strange and a little foreboding to hear the boy call the old Sarutobi by his proper title.

"Something has changed," mentally concluded all the chunins in the room who then noticed the headband Naruto was wearing. A few sneered, most shrugged, some smiled a little.

The kid wasn't all boast after all.

"I did Naruto-kun. Please, take the seat to my right and I'll explain why you are here."

The clone nodded and sat in a rather comfortable chair. At least he would not suffer from back pain. The blond looked at the old Kage.

"You are here to help me assign mission Naruto-kun. You have been taught in class how missions are ranked, true?"

Naruto-clone nodded. There was a class in the Academy, thankfully taught by Iruka, named "ninja business" that covered various topic. Mission rank, mission attribution, teams, and a bit of everything and nothing truly. All subjects that were related to ninja life but did not fit elsewhere were taught in the "ninja business" class and as such, it could be the most boring or the most interesting lesson.

"Well, while the theory taught in the Academy is not wrong, assessing the real risk of a mission comes with experience. There are numerous factors beyond the task itself that are taken into account when a mission is given a rank. It is very important to rank a mission properly so as to not send underprepared ninjas. You're following me so far?"

Naruto kept himself from rolling his eyes. One, it wasn't that complicated and two, his "short" attention span had never been that short anyway and only when it wasn't interesting. Not that the Hokage's explanation was extremely compelling but Naruto knew that if he acted up, Tiger would hurt him.

That was frightening enough to pay attention.

The blond eventually nodded and Hiruzen resumed his explanation.

"Once the mission is hopefully properly ranked, we need to find the adequate team for its completion. An ideal ninja team can take on any challenge but the reality is that most teams specialize in one field, sometimes two, and while they are capable, some missions are not meant for them."

Naruto-clone nodded again. Properly assess the level and send a team fit for the job. Okay. "Where do I come in?"

"Today, and for the foreseeable future, you'll learn to assess mission level and propose which team should do what."

The blond shrugged. "Alright. Do I shadow one of the chunin in the room Hokage-sama?"

The old Kage smiled. "No, you'll be shadowing me."

The boy sighed internally. He could not be angry at his Hokage, he repeated to himself internally. He wasn't angry at his Hokage. He was perfectly happy to be here.

* * *

Iruka had visited the Hokage early this morning with the results of his early investigation. The old ruler had not been pleased with the news. The idea that at least an entire class had had its results tempered without anyone noticing was worrying and had darkened the Hokage's brow.

It did not make sense. Whoever was responsible for the sabotage had operated in a variety of ways. Some tests had been entirely modified, like Naruto's and Hinata's, to appear worse than they really were but the method left identifiable traces of the alteration. The only reason for someone to do the modification this way, was if their time was limited. Others had simply not been corrected correctly. It pointed directly to the teacher responsible for marking those tests as the guilty party. Corruption? Blackmail? Genjutsu?

Worst case scenario, there were several infiltrators who did not know of each other, tasked with modifying the tests the master-mind wanted to be modified, all in different fashions.

The feeling of guilt that was added on top of the quagmire did not help Iruka think clearly. He had failed his students. All of them but he felt like Naruto had been the prime victim. Iruka had not believed the blond when he had assured him that some of his results did not make sense. Rather than taking thirty little seconds to check his tests, Iruka had been dismissive of Naruto's claims. The chunin had been condescending. Naruto was the endearing screw-up, the clown, he obviously was not that capable.

The brown-haired chunin rubbed his eyes and sighed. Why had he refused to see it? Naruto had taken the genin exam three times. All three times, his written results had been acceptable as Iruka was the one correcting the tests. Not excellent but way above his usual marks. Why had Iruka not realized? The brown-haired man growled under his breath and shook his head.

He was not solving this right now. Konoha had at least avoided the worst by redefining the new genin teams, even following some, if not all, of his recommendation. The teacher sighed and looked at the gathered students -ex-students, he corrected himself- who he had taught for four years.

Those who were here had all a shiny new headband adorning their head. Iruka felt his heart clench at the thought that if there was one person deserving to be here, it was a blond, blue-eyed boy who had been forced to fight for the _hitai-ite_ that should have been his by right. A boy that was right now punished, in part because Iruka had not done his job properly.

The chunin groaned internally. It was not fair. The teachers of the Academy were all supposed to be beyond reproach. How? How could he have even imagined an operation of sabotage was being conducted in the heart of Konoha, inside its very military school? It was T&I job to uproot spies, not his!

He trusted his colleagues to do the right thing. How do you weigh the words of a child against the words of an adult?

"_But you did not even attempt to verify Naruto's claims. And why would you expect them to do the right thing when you did not?"_

Iruka shook his head and refused to follow this train of thoughts. Now was not the time, he had duties to attend to first. The brown-haired man focused again on his ex-students. Hinata was curled into the same old ball of insecurities. He had advocated for her to receive help. But her father had refused. A Hyuuga did not need psychological support, Hinata as a Hyuuga, ergo Hinata did not need a shrink. Iruka had concluded Hiashi was a son of a dog.

The girl had her wide white eyes looking down, probably mortified that Naruto had not passed. Shikamaru Nara was being his usual self, asleep and not having Ryo to care about the world around him. Not to say the boy with the pineapple cut was selfish; he did not care about himself either. The complete lack of personal drive was proof enough. Nara, Underachievers Inc. Shino Aburame was a proud member of his clan. The boy, hidden behind a high-collared beige coat, was silent, observing, and silent. Invisible.

Ino Yamanaka, an ash blond girl with seafoam eyes, and Sakura Haruno, a pinkette with green eyes, were bickering over Sasuke while being seated on either side of said boy. The chunin was thankful for the psychological follow-up or he had no doubt the raven-haired Uchiha boy would have murdered the two turkeys right now. It was such a waste, both girls had potential, and they were wasting it. But while it was the rule of the Academy to impose a certain amount of discipline, it was ultimately the parents' role to set their children straight.

Choji Akimichi was doing what he was best at and it was unfortunate for a clan heir's main talent to be his capacity to eat. Kiba Inuzuka, a feral-looking boy with a small white dog roosted on top of his head, was boasting. Ami was being insufferable, and so on. They had not changed. It had been barely a week, of course they had not changed. It felt like a month to Iruka but the youngs were blissfully ignorant of what was happening around them.

Well, no more. They were ninjas now and they would have to grow up quick if they did not want to be on the receiving end of a career-ending incident. A kunai through the skull was rarely forgiving, strangely enough.

Iruka coughed once, coughed twice, molded some chakra without the need of hand sign -he had become familiar enough with the jutsu to shape his inner energy instinctually- and roared, his head growing five time its normal size.

"Shut up!"

The Akimichi people were not the only one who knew about partial extension jutsus. The class stilled and all genins looked at the teacher. Iruka stared back, meanly. He had given two or three farewell speeches over the past few years and normally they were supposed to be encouraging.

In light of what had been happening behind the scene, he would be harsher today.

"You're shinobi now." Iruka barked dryly, startling some of the genins. "This headband you gained is merely the first step. Yesterday, you had a rank, a standing, a score that placed you among your peers; today, you are nothing but genin. Whether you were first or last yesterday has no bearing on who you are today, as you are nothing but genin. Yesterday, you were the oldest and the strongest of the Academy, today you are the youngest and weakest, you are nothing but genin."

Iruka swept a glance over his ex-charges. They were shocked by his tone; never had Iruka Umino, the kind teacher, spoken so.

"You can be proud to have passed the Academy but remember that there is still much more to learn. Remember that you're stepping out of school into the vast world. Do not doubt the skills you acquired here but do not become arrogant, for today, you are nothing but genin."

The teacher sighed at the flabbergasted looks he was receiving. In the eyes of some children, not necessarily those Iruka wanted to, shone some doubts. It was better than nothing. He would not solve everything today.

"I will now announce the teams."

* * *

Hinata was feeling weird, mainly because she did not know what exactly she was feeling. She had been dejected at first to see Naruto was missing from the class, proof enough that he had not graduated and that nothing had been possible.

Why couldn't they see Naruto deserved his headband for his sheer force of will alone? She had seen the blond training, training, and training again. Failing so much yet never giving up. Enduring the heated glares, the whispered insults, the mean mockeries. How she wished she had the same steadfast, unfaltering courage.

She could do so much then. Rise above her status of failure, become a successful kunoichi, take the reins of her clan and end once and for all the rift her ancestors had instigated.

Yes, she wished she was as brave as Naruto and could not understand how it was possible for such a person to not get a _hitai-ite_. She then felt regrets. What if she had approached him? Would it have changed anything? Rather than watching his back as he pushed through the unfair obstacles fate had decided to place in his way, what if she had attempted to stand alongside him? She had scoffed at herself. Where would she have found the courage to do that in the first place?

Then Iruka had shouted for the class to fall silent and had admonished them for one last time, basically telling them that they were nothing, meant little, amounted to less. Hinata knew that to be true as far as she was concerned but to think their kind teacher had placed them all in the same basket had been strange.

Hinata was a failure, she knew that for a fact but then what were the others? Iruka had not singled out a single person during his speech, his eyes had made clear the fact his words were for everyone. She had been puzzling this for a minute until her name came up.

"Team ten under Asuma Sarutobi; Hyuuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba, Uchiha Sasuke," said Iruka dispassionately.

There were two loud outraged cries from a pinkette and a blonde before the teacher silenced them and continued to announce the teams.

So Hinata felt weird because she did not know what to think. Kiba was a loud, boastful boy who was nonetheless kind with his friends. She hoped she could gain his friendship. As for Sasuke…

Franky, Sasuke was an enigma. He was the heir to the Uchiha clan, the sole surviving member of the ruling family after something had happened many years ago. Since they had entered the Academy four years ago at age eight, Hinata had always seen the raven-haired boy alone and brooding.

About what exactly, Hinata could only guess but it probably concerned the family the boy had lost.

Not that Sasuke was alone, no. He was the last of his line but not the last of his clan. But the Uchiha who were left in Konoha after whatever had happened were distant cousins at best and apparently, their bloodline had receded to the point they were not able to use it. Sasuke was the last potential wielder of the famed Sharingan. Heir to the second most powerful clan in Fire Country. Expected to do great things. Orphaned. Pressured. Judged.

Hinata understood why the boy _felt_ alone. She knew what it felt like, to a certain extent. Yet where she had caved in, he was the rookie of the year, undoubtedly the best ninja in class.

"_Today, you are nothing but genin."_ The warning of Iruka echoed in her head. Could Sasuke be nothing but a genin too? Wasn't he better than all of them? Better than her?

"_Yesterday, he had a rank." _Her teacher's words bounced within her mind. "_There is still much to learn."_

Could she leave her rank behind her? Could she shake the yoke of her past failures off her? Could she learn too?

Could she be nothing but a genin? Would she find the courage to take this chance to change herself?

* * *

"What is the second most important quality of a Shinobi, recruit?"

Naruto was panting after he had completed dozen upon hundred upon thousand of full-counts. The poison really had done a number on him and he was glad for the reprieve Tiger had offered him. The blond breathed in and out rather loudly behind his mask as he pondered the question.

After a week, he was beginning to vaguely get his instructor. If an obvious question called for an obvious answer then the answer was not correct. Naruto was tempted to answer strength but strength was a word that meant nothing and everything. What was Strength? The physical power to achieve physical prowess? The ability to fling jutsus left, right, down, and up?

After he had had his discussion with Ayame-Neechan just the day before, Naruto had not only found himself a new goal; he had come to realize that this strength he so desired was a mean to an end.

He desired strength to protect Ayame to make sure he would get to taste her godly ramen and eat it for a long time afterward.

Strength was not a quality. By combining qualities and exploiting them rightly did a shinobi acquire strength.

"A strong motivation." The boy offered to his teacher, who inclined his head to the left.

A few seconds passed with the sound of Naruto's slowly settling breath the only thing that could be heard in the training ground.

"Why would you say that?"

Naruto shrugged. "If I'm motivated, I don't let up whatever I wanna do until I do it."

The ANBU fell silent as if considering Naruto's words and only spoke again after a full minute. The blond's breath was steady and calm by then.

"It is an excellent answer," the man said with something piercing behind his monotone, something Naruto had rarely -if ever- heard directed at him. The man was impressed, favorably.

The blond smiled behind his mask and felt pride mounting within him. He squashed the urge to babble something that would earn him a bone-rattling slap and rubbed the back of his head.

"I won't rank the qualities a shinobi should possess, as they are all equally important," Tiger drawled, his lifeless monotone back. "Give me another quality you think a ninja must show."

Naruto's eyes widened a bit and the gears of his brain started spinning at their full speed. It was a very, very large question and a tricky one at that. What were the qualities of a good ninja? If endurance was one, were they only physical traits? Could the spectrum of answers be wider than that?

The blond searched his mind for ideas when a particular memory came to him. Naruto immediately tried to evoke the Shinobi Code in his mind eye. It was a list of rules a ninja was supposed to abide to and live by. The Code was the sum of the traits a shinobi had to display. The text was the commandment of the ninja. The essence of the nindo. There would be something in there that would help him, he was sure.

Naruto frowned as he realized that, apart from the first rule, "ignore your emotions", something that had never sat well with him, he could not remember anything. Probably because he had not bothered learning it.

At the time, he had deemed the test that began with "ignore your emotions" as something obviously drab and terrible, 'ttebayo!

Was it really though? The blond gave himself a mental scowl. Of course, something telling you to ignore your emotion was terrible! If he ignored his emotion he could not have a motivation, right?

Was it right to ignore the rest of the code and forego potentially useful knowledge? The simple fact he was forced to ask himself that was enough of an answer. The blond grimaced as a disagreeable thought hit him. How many lectures had he ignored, judging them useless with all the arrogant wisdom his mere decade of life had granted him, that could come in handy now that he truly was a ninja? The blond groaned; had he been that stupid, that disrespectful?

To be fair with himself, he could not have imagined the idea, back then, that strength had many foundations and was not just about jutsus. Which was going full circle because maybe learning about the Code would have clued him on that. The blond refocused his thoughts on the question and groaned again. Realization dawned on him that his answer could be precisely what was failing him.

"Knowledge."

"Your arguments?"

"The more I know, the quicker and the easier I can solve a problem, whatever this problem is."

Silence fell for a moment between the instructor and his student.

"Sound answer and one I was looking for, if partially. What you need to understand is that there are different kinds of knowledge. Can you think of what they are?"

Once again, Naruto played the half-deduction, half-guessing game of his teacher. He turned the problem in every way he could think of, trying to frame it within the scope of what a shinobi life entailed.

Naruto started to fidget uncomfortably the more he reflected on the question. Shinobi were sent on missions…

That was about all he knew about the lifestyle he had chosen.

Was that all he knew about the path he was treading? The blond's eyes widened with mild concern. Sure, he had dreamed of saving princesses, saving countries, and overall saving the day. He had dreamed of flinging jutsus around, beating on bullies, and becoming Hokage while, admittedly, a few girls would swoon over how awesome he was. But he was not so childish as to not realize those were fantasies. Naruto believed in dreams, not in daydreaming, despite what people might think.

He intellectually knew being a ninja was about killing, spying, and stealing but what did it mean really, practically?

Naruto resisted the urge to slap his forehead. He had never taken the time to properly consider what had been a kid's dream. Not that he was second-guessing his career but what was even his career to begin with? Why couldn't Tiger give him an answer rather than force him to figure things out for himself? It always created more questions that Naruto was not ready to take on!

The boy took a deep breath to center himself. Remembering some of Tiger's first words from a week ago -it was okay not to know- the blond accepted his answer would only be partial at best, incorrect at worst.

Since when was Naruto Uzumaki afraid of falling, anyway?

Shinobi went on missions. Relating the broad concept of knowledge to that was rather easy.

"So… I'd say the ninja must know what they can do and must know what they have to do."

"Elaborate."

"Well, if a ninja knows his skill set well and he knows as much as he can about his task, he can better prepare for it. Kinda like I do when I…" Naruto's eyes widened behind his mask and lost focus on the ground. "Prepare…" The blond whispered as realization crashed on him like a hammer on an anvil. "My pranks?" He said in a questioning mutter.

The blond looked up and saw Tiger chuckling while rubbing his hands like a maniac and nodding his appreciation. Strangely, Naruto felt compelled to smile as the sadistic cackle was not directed at him. Things would pick up for him apparently but it did not have to be bad, did it?

* * *

**AN: I hope you enjoyed. Short chapter for a lot of introspection. Not too much I hope? My pieces are more or less where I want them to be. Send me some reviews for my breakfast!**

**P.S: To hell with this doc manager.**


	8. Chapter 8 No gain

**AN: I own a variety of things but Naruto is not part of it. I'd tell you to support the original release but if you are here, you already did. I hope you enjoy.  
**

* * *

After Tiger forced Naruto to connect the dots, the blond's training picked up in variety. The ANBU instructor started him on the finer points of awareness and observations. Both skills were incredibly important and Tiger stressed the point repeatedly. A ninja had to be aware of his environment, of his enemies, and of himself and that was only possible through astute observation.

Naruto's instructor had summarized it with a saying that sounded a bit pompous to the blond but that rang true nonetheless. Something about knowing "thyself, thy surroundings, and thy enemy and thou shall never be defeated", approximately.

What it meant in practicality was that Naruto's lunchtime was now dedicated to him analyzing pictures of people and places and deduce from it the answer to a question Tiger would ask him. He then had to describe how he would attack the person or make a list of all the potential weapons, escape routes, and covers of a designated place.

For the blond, it was like planning a prank and his -in fact sharp- mind quickly picked up what Tiger wanted him to learn. It could be summarized in two points: everyone had at least one weak point and everything was a weapon. The difficult part was identifying what was what.

His afternoons did not change much. After a session of rope jumping, he would fight the Akki only this time, Tiger was trying to turn him into a pincushion with sharpened kunais and shurikens. All in good fun, the ANBU repeatedly told him over the passing days.

To even out the activity, a secondary functionality of the dummy was revealed to Naruto. Artificial weak points in the wooden golem could be covered and uncovered at random, like a game of whack-a-mole, by the hydraulic system. If Naruto hit hard enough on an unprotected weakness, a special piece made to be very easy to replace would break, making the water pressure within the dummy take a dive and make its movements a bit more sluggish and predictable.

Those weak points were located on the dummy to mimic the fragile areas of a human. The joints, the liver, the sternum, the throat, and so on were critical zones the blond was encouraged to try to break. Under duress of a lot of pain. Naruto was visibly getting sturdier by the day but the weighted arms of the angry mannequin still hurt. And that was without taking into account the kunais flying at top speed toward him.

The wild flails of the golem were by design difficult to predict, the weak points difficult to hit cleanly, and Tiger shurikenjutsu was a constant threat, pushing Naruto to be ever on edge, forcing him into dangerous maneuvers, encouraging him to improvise.

The rest of his training and conditioning did not relent. The HSRB continued; the substances the blond was fed made any physical exercise a living hell, tired him to no end, turned the dummy sparring sessions into a waking nightmare. The goal was to make the blond resistant to all poisons known to Konoha and make him used to the feeling of being poisoned. Suna and Kiri-nin were feared for a very particular reason.

He continued to work under Dog's watch, trying and failing to stick to the thrice-damned wall of the bowl room. The ANBU had informed him of the state of his tenketsus and was more sympathetic now that she knew the blond had a physical problem and not a lack of talent. Naruto had accepted it all, simply suggesting to push chakra outside of his body during his meditating session to attempt to make them larger. After a quick discussion with a med-nin and Dragon, Naruto had been given the green light.

His two other clones pushed his kenjutsu training hard in order to make up for the lack of his chakra control. Naruto was not forgetting this was supposed to be a "trial run". He did not really know how he was evaluated but he could not take any chance. He did not want his instructors to think he was slacking off.

With two clones working on each task, even if he was failing at one, the feedback felt amazing. The memory merging process, while putting more strain on his brain, was also smoother due to the number of repeating memories he had access to. In addition, the experience was multiplicative rather than additive. Shadow clones were independent enough to go about a problem in slightly different ways, which meant that while one worked with method A, the other could work with method B. It did not subtract from the time required to learn something, it literally divided it.

One problem was that learning something wrong was several times worse but his instructors were keen on not letting that happen.

His self-study in Toad Poetry was going well. Mount Myoboku seemed to be close to paradise on earth if the texts were remotely close to the truth. Also, the toads were drunkards, if the number of haikus on alcohol was any sort of indication. The strangest poems were undoubtedly those written by a certain Gamamaru. That particular toad was high on drugs, Naruto was sure of that.

"Light will be shed, upon the shadowy path, the start of a new age." As if.

The funnier one were often penned by one of two toads: Fukasaku or Gamabunta.

"Dance on the sake jug, gobble a fly, precious oil flows," was definitely better and made Naruto wonder if a tag could make people drunk. This Gamabunta guy knew how to enjoy life.

The "gobble a fly" part even gave the boy an idea. Many would have called it stupid but the only stupid seals were the one a practitioner never made, 'ttebayo! Or so the author of Naruto's first ever fuinjutsu manual had said.

What Naruto had dreaded the most was his work at the Tower in the presence of the Hokage but even that was going well. The blond did not know exactly what he had feared but his surrogate grandfather had maintained a professional behavior, not pushing Naruto on personal matters, and otherwise proved to deserve his title of "Professor".

Evaluating a mission -bare the D-ranked ones, which, to Naruto's horror truly existed- was like piecing a puzzle. Who was paying for it? What were the objectives? What were the declared dangers? What were the undeclared dangers? Those questions were all pieces of information that Naruto had to answer and bring together to get a general picture of the request.

It was similar to Tiger's exercise and Naruto understood that what he was doing was basically getting the knowledge in place of the ninjas who would be dispatched. It was certainly less exciting than getting to do the mission himself but it was no less an important step. Once he saw it as a game of sort -a game with very high stakes, he supposed- he even found the activity enjoyable if slightly frustrating.

It was also interesting to discover how the multitude of requests came and went to Konoha. The Communication Tower was constantly receiving missions from offices spread over Fire Country in every major towns and villages of enough importance. The demands were carried over to the mission desk, processed, and if a request was accepted as a job, an answer was sent back via the Communication Tower.

When Naruto asked why the demands were not processed locally, the Hokage simply reminded him that only he had the power to officially send ninjas on a mission and that his shinobi were all stationed in Konoha anyway. It also explained why Konoha was hidden roughly in the center of Fire Country: all borders were at equidistance and outposts could be reached by reinforcement equally quickly.

The best part was the free lunch. Even if he was a clone, the Naruto replica did not hesitate to gorge himself with whatever was delivered to the chunin and the Hokage. It was part of his cover after all. Him eating nothing would have alerted the ninja working with him.

The first time he had eaten sushi, the clone had silently laughed, reminded of a prank from more than a year past. He had caught on a certain ritual of the Hokage: Thursday was sushi day. Naruto had spent weeks working on recreating the very specific box of sushi his grandfather liked and had one day replaced the original with one of his own creation.

With extra wasabi under the fish topping.

It had been the blond's most expensive prank ever but worth it. Even the Hokage had been unable to prove anything. Sushi day had since then been randomized.

No, working with the Hokage was not at all as uncomfortable as he had feared. Meeting his ex-classmates again had been, though.

* * *

It was early on Thursday afternoon and one Naruto-clone was sitting on the Hokage's left, prepping his desk for the second half of his day's work. The bell signaling the door of the office opening jiggled but Naruto did not look up, already used to the vaguely annoying chime.

"Hello, _Hokage-sama_," called a grave, male voice with mirth.

Naruto lifted his eyes with a smile on his face. He immediately took stock of Asuma Sarutobi standing in front of the mission desk.

"Hello, Naruto." The tall, black-bearded jonin greeted.

"Hey, Asuma." The blond answered with a wave and a grin before it faltered.

Behind the jonin stood three of his ex-classmates, two of which he had not wanted to see again. Or not that soon anyway.

Hinata Hyuga simply looked at him for a second before she glanced down at her feet. Sasuke Uchiha was sporting his mask of indifference and his sneer of contempt. Kiba Inuzuka just had an insufferable smile on his face.

"Ha, what'cha doing here loser?" The wild looking Inuzuka exclaimed uproariously, pointing a mocking finger at the blond.

Naruto gritted his teeth and watched as Kiba was immediately smacked on his head by Asuma.

"Naruto has a headband Kiba, he is working as a ninja but on a different mission."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed in suspicion as he took in the sight of Naruto's _hitai-ite_. Hinata let out a sigh.

"What! How did he get it?! He failed!"

"That is none of your concern Kiba." Asuma admonished sternly. "All ninjas are approved by Hokage-sama. If Naruto has a headband, he deserves it, period."

"That's favoritism!" Protested the feral looking boy.

"Kiba!" Asuma shouted menacingly. "I do believe I'm a patient man but if you don't drop it right now, you'll get what's coming for you. Naruto is a genin, period. Now let's get our mission."

Cowed by the sudden threatening tone of his sensei, Kiba decided it wise to remain silent. As the team took their mission, Sasuke ignored the blond and Hinata shot him a look that could have been apologetic, Naruto was not sure.

That had been the tamest of all the encounters. When the Quatuor of team eight, composed of Ino Yamanaka, Choji Akimichi, and Shikamaru Nara, under the lead of a white-haired, masked jonin, had come for their first mission, it had been worse.

Choji had munched on his chips and Shikamaru had muttered a "troublesome" but Ino's outburst had been worse than Kiba's. Giving their jonin did not give a damn about what was happening, his nose deep into the page of a little orange book, the Hokage himself had needed to intervene on Naruto's behalf.

The old man had been two seconds away from the blond demonstrating his new brand of taijutsu on the vapid Yamanaka.

All encounter had left an acid taste in the back of Naruto's mouth. He wanted to scoff at the idea of being privileged in any ways, given the life he had to lead up until now but it would not stop nagging him. How deserved was his field promotion to genin? How deserved was his offer to join ANBU?

Tch, of course he owned everything he had. He had worked his ass off and even been sabotaged! If he could not be a genin, no one could, 'ttebayo!

* * *

Just like that, a good part of Naruto's second week of training came and went. The training was harsh, unforgiving, demanding. Mornings were still full of full-counts, kata drills, shuriken throwing. The afternoons were a punishment, as fighting Akki while dodging steel stars after an intense session of artistic rope jumping was the hardest thing the blond had ever done.

Naruto lived for every second of the thrill and took the challenge head-on. He knew that again and again, he was pushing his limits further and further. Never had he felt like he was progressing so much by the minute.

It was Friday and late when the boy finally got the better of Akki, his worst frenemy golem, by jabbing the dummy's exposed throat mechanism with a blade hand. Two pipes were held jointed together by an adjustable circle of steel. The circle itself was precariously kept fastened by a peg that Naruto's strike had removed.

The water pressure within the tubes had made the rest.

Hot, red, slightly viscous liquid tasting like iron had erupted and drenched Naruto, freezing the boy in horror. It took the blond several seconds and a hit to the guts that sent him sprawled on the ground to realize it was not real blood but some elaborate imitation.

"When you slit a real throat completely open, the pressure is more or less the same for a second," informed Tiger with his monotone. "That's why you go only slightly deeper than the vocal cords; it avoids making a mess." The ANBU manhandled the blond into a standing position. "Next time, don't freeze."

Its throat was torn; the dummy had sagged and deflated like some sort of old balloon, fake blood pouring in rivulets down its wooden body, the pump automatically detecting the pressure dive and stopping in mere instants.

"Much like a real heart," provided Tiger dispassionately.

That night, Naruto felt sick and woke up tired and vaguely angry when the morrow came. His anger grew for the entirety of his morning-long warm-up, going from warm to burning hot. His lunch was a complicated affair and after a furious session of rope jumping, the blond was brought in front of a repaired dummy. Naruto noticed the wood was a shade darker where the "blood" had stained it.

"You can repair a golem but with a man, it's final."

Naruto felt his anger go from vague to focused and nodded before he took the kunai Tiger was giving him. The blond shot a questioning look at his instructor.

"Taijutsu is a last resort as it'll often not be efficient enough. Bukijutsu further close combat efficiency. The use of a kunai or trench knife is relatively easy when one has solid taijutsu basics as the motions are the same, with only a few subtleties," explained Tiger. "It'll be many times easier for you to deactivate Akki with a weapon."

Naruto nodded again and gripped the kunai as he had been taught, one eternity ago, in the Academy. Tiger activated the pump and Akki sprung to life. Naruto growled and launched himself against the immortal dummy. This time, it took less than a minute before the blond could puncture the gel-like blood bag that was supposed to simulate a liver. Akki kept flailing for several minutes, Naruto attacking its joints and dislocating them one by one to render them useless until the pressure decreased under the critical level from the flowing "wound".

For his trouble, Naruto had lost a molar despite his protection, the left side of his chest was hurting from bruised ribs, and a kunai had embedded itself deep in the back of his thigh. It would heal but Naruto learned an important lesson that day. Losing a tooth hurt like a bitch. Also, he wasn't getting caught like he had been ever again.

"I will assume you now understand what I mean with awareness." It was as much a statement as it was a question.

Naruto nodded curtly, gingerly holding the side of his jaw, his entire mouth on fire from the loss of his tooth.

"Can you tell me where your awareness failed you?"

The blond lifted his mask slightly to spit blood before setting the disguise on his face straight again. When he spoke, his voice was muffled by his swollen, painful cheek.

"I thought that puncturing the…" Naruto hesitated a second. "The liver, would be enough to deactivate the Akki."

Tiger nodded but stayed silent and the blond could feel the ANBU stare at him. Apparently, Naruto had to say something more. The boy replayed his fight against the mannequin as best as he could.

He had been rather aggressive. It could easily be attributed to his lack of sleep but it was not all there was to it. The kunai had emboldened him. He had thought the Akki would "die" way faster than the golem actually had. He had not exercised the same amount of caution he usually did when fighting the dummy bare-handed. He had not been aware of the anger rolling within him, nor of the arrogance the weapon had insufflated into him.

"I was not thinking straight," Naruto eventually relented under the piercing eyes of Tiger. "I don't know why… I'm angry."

The ANBU nodded but said nothing.

"I guess the fact I had a kunai… I thought it'd be easier."

Tiger nodded again but this time, the operator spoke. "Wounds inflicted elsewhere than the head or the heart are rarely immediately lethal for a trained ninja. I've seen shinobis fight with one of their lungs pierced, their guts spilling out, their ribs shattered. They don't struggle long, a few seconds, a minute at most, but it's enough to catch you off guard if you allow it."

Naruto felt something get stuck in his throat and felt a little queasy at the gruesome description. Would he ever eviscerate someone? Would he ever cause a man to hold on his guts as they were spilling out of his abdomen? Would that ever happen to him? The boy turned green behind his mask and was happy he had yet to have his lunch.

"Know that a fight is not over until all hostiles are neutralized and that means them being tied up or dead," informed Tiger with his characteristic lack of inflection.

The blond gulped loudly, swallowing the nauseating lump that had formed in his throat and nodded. "Hai, sensei."

"Now, what lesson can you deduce from what happened regarding your emotions?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head, trying to forget the uncomfortable sensation in his stomach. "I… They make me sloppy."

"When you allow your emotions to control you, that is often the case. It is why a good shinobi masters his emotions."

The blond frowned behind his mask, his queasiness momentarily gone. It sounded a bit too much like a to the letter interpretation of the Code. One Naruto had mixed feelings about. He controlled his outburst though -he did not want to risk losing another tooth- and coughed to stifle his shout.

"But…" The blond kept himself from flailing his arms left and right by gripping his hands together. "But are we supposed to not feel at all?" The blond protested in as measured a tone as possible.

Tiger shook his head and motioned for Naruto to sit down on the ground. Once both were comfortably situated in a lotus position, the ANBU laced his fingers under his chin.

"You heard what I said but you did not understand what I meant."

Naruto tilted his head and sent an interrogating glance at his instructor, a look the man could somehow see or rather, feel, despite the mask.

"I did not say shinobi cannot feel, I said shinobi must control their emotions. What did you feel when you asked your question?"

Naruto scratched the back of his scalp, taken a bit by surprise by the question. "Err, I was… It was indignation?" The blond shrugged before he crossed his arms across his chest. "I don't like the first rule. If we don't feel, how can we protect? How do we serve the Will of Fire?"

Tiger sighed silently. "The first rule comes directly from the Warring Clan area. Shinobi did not have a village to protect back then. They were considered tools, only good to further the interests of their clan and do the binding of their Lord."

The boy huffed. "Well… Well, that's just as dumb. Maybe they didn't have a whole village but they still had their clan to protect. How can a person want to do something if they are not allowed their feelings?"

"Because feelings can interfere with the success of a mission. Imagine being tasked with something that goes against your conception of what's right. Will you refuse your mission? Will you fail it on purpose? Will you risk the village to uphold your beliefs?"

Naruto fell silent at the barrage of questions and looked down, lost in his thoughts. What, indeed, would he do in such a situation? Was that the reason shinobis did not allow themselves to feel? So they could carry on with the mission no matter what it was?

"The first rule is often misinterpreted," said Tiger, cutting through Naruto's reflection. "It goes 'a shinobi shall not allow emotions to dull his blade if they are not a whetstone'. It does not mean that we aren't allowed to feel. It means that, when we are on the battlefield, our feelings should always be on a tight leash. Mastered, as I said."

"So… Don't let my anger make me lose my temper?"

"Exactly. Anger makes one sloppy. Arrogance makes one open. Overconfidence makes one unaware. And so on. All these lead to death."

Naruto frowned. "What does the whetstone part refer to?"

"Controlled anger can be channeled into strength and speed. Arrogance and overconfidence can be curbed into a heightened state of awareness. They then become the whetstone that makes the shinobi's blade even sharper."

"So… Feeling is… Good then, right?" To be honest, the blond was a little confused by the double message of the rule. In fact, he had never heard the rule enounced like that. He had never heard anything about the "whetstone" part.

"Controlled, channeled feelings are potent. But it is extremely difficult to do, so many ninjas prefer to bury their emotions deep down and not to touch them. They don't allow them to take over but make no use of them."

"Hum… Can you… Can you do it?"

Tiger shook his head. "No. I rein them in, put them on a leash, and work through them and resolve them after the mission, which is absolutely necessary if you don't want them to fester. As I said, few ninjas have the self-control necessary to exploit their emotions. It is something we all should work forward though."

Naruto nodded and cupped his chin. "Is that why you hit me when I'm… Too loud?"

Tiger bobbed his head up and down sagely. "Partially, yes. Also because it's annoying. But mainly, it reduces your awareness."

"But… I mean, if I express my emotions, I'm aware of them, right? So don't I increase my awareness of myself?"

"That might be the case but if it comes at the cost of being distracted from your environment, you risk taking a kunai to the stomach before you can react. You might survive being gutted but I would not recommend trying it."

The boy sweatdropped and rubbed the back of his head when some of his teacher's words grabbed his attention. "How do you… Work through your emotions? If they are buried, why even do it?"

"It is known that simply ignoring your emotions is dangerous and leads to sudden, unexpected breakdowns. You have to identify what you feel and, if it's negative, try to accept it and work through it."

"Work through it?"

"It means to at least coming to term with it and at best it means that you get something out of it. A resolution, a deeper understanding of yourself."

Either sensing Naruto's confusion or taking his tilter head as a clue, Tiger kept explaining.

"Let's take your anger for example. Many people would tell you to express it and punch something to get rid of it. Don't. Anger is something we all feel to a degree, it's natural so do not bottle it up, don't ignore it. If you cannot work with it during your battle, you work through it afterward. Why were you angry in the first place?"

Naruto was a bit startled by the sudden question. "I…" The blond dug deep within his brain but he came up short. "I don't know really?"

"You had no immediate reason to be angry correct?"

The boy nodded a yes and Tiger continued. "It means your anger was caused by something that happened yesterday, or that you realized yesterday. Anger is a natural reaction to various forms of provocation but also a way of denial."

Naruto thought hard. Why had he been angry in the first place? For "killing" Akki? For freezing when the fake blood had covered him? For the lack of passion with which Tiger had described the real process of killing a man by a strike to the throat?

It had been a mix of all that and the realization that ninja life was messy and merciless. Someday, he would plunge a kunai into a man's kidney for the sole reason that he was either Naruto's mission or an obstacle. He would take lives solely because those they belonged to were deemed targets by Konoha. Regardless of their sins, regardless of their virtues, he would kill unknown men and women. For the Village.

It would be no different than killing a faceless dummy yet Naruto knew it would be.

"I…" The blond tried to speak but felt his voice waver and fail him. He swallowed and looked down, lost in thoughts, unsure if he could confide what was in his mind right now.

The motion of his instructor standing up focused Naruto back on the present. Before the blond could follow suit, Tiger stopped him with a raised hand.

"Rest for now. It was time for a break anyway. Akki won't be fixed before an hour so meditate for a moment to center yourself."

* * *

The morrow came and it was Sunday. Naruto was grateful for his day of rest and welcomed it eagerly. The week had been exhausting, even with his increasing stamina, and the blond decided that doing absolutely nothing but reading toad poetry after stuffing himself with ramen on top of the Hokage Monument was a perfect way to go about spending his weekly leave.

The weather was great, warm but not burning, dry but not stifling. The view from up the Yondaime's head was breathtaking and there was a slight breeze that made it the perfect spot to be lazy. The blond had brought a blanket to soften the spot he was laying on. His blue eyes were roaming over the parchment of toad poetry he had "borrowed" from the ANBU library; no one would miss it anyway. Naruto had been extremely careful to humidify the scroll ever so very slightly to better its condition. He would need to copy it soon, as it was at risk of falling to dust. With a satisfied sigh, the boy simply enjoyed the moment, a smile on his lips.

Shikamaru was proud of his laziness but he knew nothing of the art. Naruto had understood that, paradoxically, if one wanted to laze comfortably, it required some preliminary efforts. Hence the spot, the cushion, and the read.

Now, Naruto was not one for books in general but there were a few things he enjoyed reading about. Tales of Konoha's founding were always entertaining to read, as they were all about mighty heroes and big battles. They were his guilty pleasure, so to speak.

On a completely different register, chakra and ninjutsu theory was something that fascinated the blond and that he could read about without much trouble. What ninja worth their salt would not be a little curious about the intricacies of their arts? Chakra was the root of everything after all!

Not that the reads were always riveting; in fact, they rarely were. Naruto had perused a number of tomes he had gained access to, had found many of them pretty lacking, and had abandoned halfway more than two-thirds of all he had ever begun. All the books focused on the many practical uses of chakra but none dared to tackle more fundamental questions: what was chakra? Where did it come from? Had it existed since ever?

A certain number of things were simply accepted as axiomatic and never questioned. Some ninjutsu were specific to genetics, there existed only a limited number of mudras -the twelve zodiac animals, their reversed form, and a few others-, some manipulation were straight up impossible… Anyway, it denoted a terrible lack of imagination and daring, 'ttebayo! It was almost the opposite of fuinjutsu, which encouraged students and masters alike to experiment on their craziest ideas. With varying levels of caution, of course.

Finally, Naruto just enjoyed poetry. Reading it but writing just as well, not that he would ever admit to anyone he wrote poetry. Anyone who was not brain dead and who knew of and about the blond's hobby of fuinjutsu necessarily knew it, as the sealing arts were half about poetry but still. Writing poetry was such a not-ninja thing to do. Nobles in their radiant palaces were supposed to write poems, not no-name, orphaned shinobis.

But poetry was an integral part of his sealing hobby and, contrary to the complex geometry which he found curious and interesting but not to the point of enthrallment, he had taken a shine to the verses and the rhymes.

He had driven the Hokage crazy back when he was eight by speaking in rhyme for an entire month until his access to Ichiraku's Ramen had been put into consideration.

Naruto lifted his azure eyes from his scroll for a second, taking in the view of Konoha sprawled below him, and frowned, his eyes tightening and his guts clenching. For a while now, the view had been taunting him, keeping him from reading anything truly. Thousands of houses of all size, mainly made of wood, the vast majority painted white, with roof tiled blue-green or ochre, were visible in-between copse of trees. The forest surrounding Konoha did not stop at the city walls, it extended inside the city proper. Konoha was a labyrinth both because of its non-existent urban planning and the trees growing absolutely everywhere; the city bore its name well.

The blood took a whiff of the breeze, closing his eyes to focus on the scents the wind was carrying. Earth, wood, and flowers were the easily distinguishable fragrances. Mixed in were more subtle scents, some Naruto could name, some he could not. The blond always had a good nose, nowhere near an Inuzuka's but better than the majority of his classmates.

It smelled like home. Naruto scowled. It had been more than two weeks since he had come here. The last time had been to wash the aftermath of his last prank under the watchful eyes of Iruka. It was a breach of a long-lasting habit of his to come on the Fourth Hokage's head to remind himself of his dream when all that had been on his mind was getting the hat for himself. Ramen and fuinjutsu notwithstanding.

It had been a really pathetic dream in retrospect, nothing but the fantasies of a child who did not understand the life he had nor the one he wanted to lead for what they really were. Two weeks in ANBU and Naruto was barely beginning to understand what being a ninja was about, much less being Hokage. That was not even considering the reasons for his ambitions, something the blond had already concluded was wrong. For someone who prided himself of never daydreaming or at least with moderation, it had been the worst kind of daydream. Fuelled by incomprehension, ignorance, and a good dose of foolishness but still.

It felt so far away. Had he ever been so little? So immature? How much was he still? Those two weeks seemed like two months and he learned daily.

It was partly because of yesterday's lesson that he was here today. The last time he had been here, he did not know anything. Today, he knew almost too much.

Coming to sit on the Yondaime's sculpted head was not something that had begun with his old dream. His old dream had begun here. The first time he had been here, it was to find a refuge. When the harsh glares, the whispered insults, the twitchy nervousness, the crass bullying had become too much, Naruto Uzumaki had sought a refuge where crying would be okay. The Yondaime's head was his sanctuary, the place he rested in-between the battles that were his life.

People did not grasp what it truly meant to be ostracized by the near entirety of the village one was supposed to live in. As much as Naruto liked Iruka, the Ichiraku, and the Sarutobi, they were but a fraction of Konoha's population. The elevated position above the village was not only a place of reprieve for Naruto. Yesterday, it had elevated him, bringing him closer to his ambitions. Today, it allowed him to tower over all those fearful, ignorant, ungrateful, mediocre, hateful villagers.

It had been Tiger's warning about festering emotions that had made Naruto think. It had made the blond think about things he thought were solved. It was simple, he was not supposed to resent the villagers. They did not know, after all, they did not understand. He was not supposed to be envious. He was not supposed to begrudge their happiness. It was supposed to be counterproductive, unhealthy, unworthy of Naruto Uzumaki. So he had come here to prove to himself that he wasn't feeling any of that.

Yet here he was, angry.

There were no two ways about it. He was angry at the villagers and he was glad to have disappeared in the darkness, where he did not have to gaze upon a sight he both loved and despised equally strongly. In ANBU, he wasn't reminded daily of what he never had. It lay his anger to rest, put it on hold. Where he was now, he could not see the hypocrites and the traitors, those who worshipped the man's sacrifice in the name of the Will of Fire, while hating on the child's.

He had directed all of his anger at his grandfather to not be tempted to direct it at those who deserved it.

He could not talk to anyone about it. He did not know who to talk to. He did not know if it would do him any good anyway. Was a jinchuuriki allowed to hate his home? Would the Hokage understand? His grandfather had accepted his anger against him but would the leader of Konoha accept his anger against his village?

How was he supposed to work through all that?

Naruto sighed deeply. Self-awareness might make him a better ninja but it had its own baggage of problems. Namely, uncomfortable questions. Uncomfortable questions that he would not allow to get between him and his toad poetry. With a resolute frown, Naruto returned his eyes on the scroll.

* * *

Hiruzen Sarutobi sighed. His week had not been a pleasant one. He had hoped working with his surrogate grandson would ease the tension between them but the boy had been closed off. Agreeable, polite, dedicated to his task, but a wall to anything else. The investigation of the sabotage at the Academy was going nowhere yet. Mizuki had been broken by T&I but had revealed nothing of importance. Sure, the silver-haired man had blurted worrying bits of information but nothing that could lead anyone forward. As for Iruka Umino, the teacher was making slow, if steady, progress but it was clear he was not in his element.

Finally, and it had been the most frustrating thing for the Hokage, he could not find something convincing to do about Naruto's situation. He had taken the grand resolution to give his surrogate grandson the recognition he deserved but he had no idea how to go about it.

He could not force anything on anyone. How would he even do it? By threatening his population? The goal was to establish trust and understanding, not to make people even more fearful. Organize crash course in fuinjutsu? The art was so complex, civilians and ninjas alike would probably end up even more confused.

He could mount a subtle propaganda operation but it would take years before anything would come off it. While it would have been a great idea twelve years ago, it was now too late. Showcasing the blond in a chunin exam, then? Naruto would need a proper, official genin team for it to work, to avoid being accused of favoritism. This particular ship had sailed and would not be possible for a while.

Get out of his office and knocking at each and every doors of Konoha to explain as best as he could, that Naruto was not dangerous? He was an old man busy with too much work, he had no time for such a stunt.

The only thing Hiruzen could imagine that would bring instant recognition for the blond was if he accomplished, unmasked, some grand exploit in front of the villagers. Something like saving their Hokage, battling back an invasion, or anything like that.

Given that Konoha had never been invaded, the Kyuubi attack notwithstanding, it was not likely anything like that would happen anytime soon. And Hiruzen knew that Naruto would not accept anything staged. He was not sure Naruto would accept anything at all, actually.

The Hokage groaned as he tiredly rubbed his eyes. Life was difficult sometimes.

* * *

Naruto began his third week in ANBU with Dragon welcoming him with his three instructors, the owl-masked woman from last week, and a sixth masked man. The newcomer had sandy blond hair and a hawk mask.

"Today Naruto, you'll go through your first simulation exercise," Tiger explained with his unchanging monotone.

If there was a constant in Naruto's life, it was his instructor's voice. The blond stayed silent. He knew that all necessary information would be explained in due time.

"Simulation exercises are basically simulated missions carried within the village or around. They test various things; among them your stealth, your ingenuity, and so on. You'll be designated a target who knows only that they are taking part in a training exercise-"

"So that they don't freak out," completed the blond.

"Correct. We will be observing you. You'll warm up properly in one of the training ground inside Konoha and then the exercise will begin. Let's go."

The blond followed Tiger outside of the ANBU underground compound to training ground three where he took three hours to thoroughly wake himself up with diverse exercises for warming up. When he nodded to his instructor to signify he was ready, the man wordlessly handed him a rolled up scroll.

Naruto took a deep breath and unfurled the paper. The game was on and it was time to shine. Leaving the training ground, the blond stepped back into Konoha.

Dragon and his two bird-masked subordinates watched as Naruto climbed very slowly up a wall to get to the roof level of Konoha. The boy had to spend a few minutes to study the mission parameters. His target was a no-name chunin, Bekko, who he was supposed to tag in the back without the chunin noticing.

Child play for the prankster king of Konoha. He had painted people's hair in pink without them noticing so the mission would be easy for him.

"Your sensory ability has him?" Dragon asked the hawk-masked man on his right.

"Yes, sir."

"Pay close attention to it."

"Hai."

It took Naruto a little while to track the chunin from the information on the mission scroll. Bekko was a career chunin without much accomplishments to his name. The man had his own little habits, from which he never deviated when he was on leave.

Ninja life was fucked up so it wasn't rare for shinobi to appreciate routine when they had the occasion to.

The blond looked at his mark from a roof he was roosted on. The middle-aged man was currently doing some grocery shopping at an open market. One perfect place to have a paper tag stuck in-between his shoulder blades. Contrary to what people believed, pulling a prank on a ninja was easier in a populated area. In a back alley, they would hear you coming but in a marketplace, only their sixth sense and a healthy dose of paranoia could help them

Naruto felt his stomach churn at the thought. He knew full well the paper was supposed to represent a knife. There was actually a paralysis seal on the tag that would activate and floor the boy's "victim" for a few seconds, simulating an attack.

There were no real orders to execute the mission and the blond could already see one way to go about it that would leave him entirely undetected. It was weirdly easy, now that the boy was thinking about it.

What were they really testing here? Why were Owl and Hawk with Dragon? Was he supposed to impress? If so, how was he to do that? By being completely sneaky? Entirely too creative? The blond scratched his chin. Maybe he was reading too deeply into things. It had been easier being an idiot. Using your brain tended to make everything more complicated. No matter, he had something to do.

"Alright, let's do this." The blond said eventually, creating four shadow clones.

* * *

Dragon watched with mirth as Naruto was internally debating how to go about his mission. Suddenly the blond stood, created four replicas, and slowly slid down the tube of a gutter while three of his clones scattered. One replica simply followed the blond. With a single hand sign, the blank masks of both the true Naruto and his replica disappeared behind a henge. Naruto was now a brown-haired, brown-eyed boy whose first qualificative would be plain. His clone was equally plain.

The real, disguised blond integrated himself in the flow of people and Dragon tensed. It was the moment of truth. Suddenly, the general felt Hawk tense and swear besides him just as, for a second, he himself lost sight of his recruit.

"What is it?" The commander asked, his mind already piecing together what he knew and what he had just observed. His abilities were not as developed as Hawk's but it had been unmistakable.

"He… He disappeared. I cannot feel him anymore without looking for him. If I did not know what to look for, he'd be invisible."

"Owl, your eyes."

"Hai."

There was a small burst of chakra before the female ANBU gasped. "That's why they are like this!" She exclaimed in a hushed shout.

"What is it, Owl?"

"His tenketsus!" The ANBU whispered, her voice oscillating between alarm and confusion. "They shrunk so much that he emits practically no chakra! And he is coiling and weaving the rest around him like some cloak!"

"I think we pierced the secret of the pranking king, soldiers." Dragon smiled before muttering to himself. "Chakra really works in mysterious ways."

As soon as Naruto took to the street he went into prank-mode. He willed himself to become invisible. He willed himself to shrink on himself. He willed himself to disappear.

He had always done that. At first, it was to escape the glares and the whispers. Then, he had realized that, given the disdain the citizens had for him, it was not that much of a stretch to become invisible. He had just to become silent, little, insignificant, uninteresting, and the villagers' prejudice would do the rest.

Or that's how he figured he was so stealthy anyway.

Naruto played once again the scenario of his "assassination" in his mind. His four clones were overlooking the marketplace, ready to warn him if the target was deviating from their habits. Naruto himself would mingle with the crowd and approach the mark, dissimulated by the flow of people.

He could not escape with a substitution jutsu. He knew it left a chakra trail that could be used to identify him. It was the reason he would strike near a stall. The moment the tag would be planted, he would simply hide underneath the cloth that covered it.

He had done it a number of times with success. The key was misdirection, distraction, diversion. No one looked under a stall when a giant paper bomb exploded near it.

It took four minutes to identify the target again from within the crowd, three more to go near him without arousing suspicion, and one final minute to meet up with his second clone at the right place.

It took a second for Naruto's replica to bump into the man, shoving him off balance for the briefest instant, a precious window of time the real blond used to slap the paralysis tag on the chunin, who collapsed with a gargled cry of surprise.

It took another second for the crowd to register what had just happened, a second Naruto took to disappear under the stall Bekko was buying from, while his clone and a few civilians screamed loudly about the downed man.

It took a minute until the villagers started pointing accusing fingers at the replica, who simply turned tail and ran, before dispelling in a back alley.

Naruto had since long gone out of hiding and had left the marketplace.

* * *

**AN: Hey there. I hope you enjoyed. Some more answers, some more questions. One for you: what do you think the Hokage could actually do to better Naruto's condition in the village after the Kyuubi reveal? It is extremely unlikely for your answers to influence what I'll write but I'm curious about what you can come up with.**

**Send me reviews so I can eat my fill.**


	9. Chapter 9 Solution

**A/N: I am back. So yeah. Here ya go. Thanks for all the reviews on chapter 8, they kept me fed aplenty. Which is fortunate because I own nothing.  
**

**Oh yeah: holly shit, more than a thousand favorites? Damn!**

* * *

"You called for me, Hokage-sama?" A tall, slim, ninja with his black hair done in a high, pineapple-like ponytail and a scarred, seemingly peevish face asked his commander-in-chief.

"I did, Shikaku," answered Hiruzen Sarutobi, nonplussed by the apparent annoyance displayed by the man at being here. Shikaku Nara was always annoyed to be anywhere anyway. It was a certainty, much like a law of Nature. "Have a seat please."

The ninja sighed but sat, sprawling his body in the chair without regard for etiquette. As the head of the Nara clan, he had the duty to preserve the legendary facade of laziness all his clansmen were proud of. It was a not so subtle game of deception that the Hokage accepted; it was the price for exploiting his intelligence. Plus, the chair was really comfortable.

Shikaku sent a look the Hokage's way, waiting for the older man to speak. He stifled a growl when the Sarutobi simply took his pipe and prepared it with slow, measured movements, careful not to lose any speck of tobacco. The Nara watched with equal part vague annoyance and mild curiosity the manner in which the Hokage prepared his smoke.

He could be playing shoji right now, what a bother. Or drinking some sake with his friends. Or watch clouds go by. At least he was nowhere near his bothersome wife.

Eventually, the Hokage looked at his handy work with a satisfied grin and lit it with sheer elemental manipulation: by converting a burst of chakra erupting from his finger into a fire. A blueish smoke rose from the furnace and the embers sizzled when the Sarutobi took a drag from his pipe. With a long, slow exhale, the Hokage blew a plume of smoke that twirled in a spiral above his head before sending a pointedly questioning glance at the jonin commander.

"So, how are you today, Shikaku?"

Shikaku allowed one single eyebrow to rise and straightened from his spread position to an upright one. The Nara shrugged, joined his palms, and twisted both of his wrists once to the left, once to the right.

"Fine Hokage-sama," grunted the jonin in a deep, dry cut voice.

The Hokage blew a perfectly round circle of smoke. "Good, good. I would like your opinion on the chunin exam that'll be held in Kusa in a month."

Shikaku sighed before he brought his right hand to his chin in order to give his goatee nine solid scratches. "What exactly is your concern, Hokage-sama?"

The older man waved slightly in a circular motion. "Oh, you know… The usual questions. Should we send anyone and if yes, how many and who?"

The jonin propped his right elbow up on the chair's armrest and supported his head with his thumb and three fingers, before he abruptly folded two of them against his palm, leaving only his index pressed against his cheek, his thumb playing once with his goatee.

"Kusa being our ally, I think it'd be good to send one team strong enough to make a good showing but not enough to actually win the tournament. To show respect, five teams top should suffice." Shikaku answered while looking straight at the Hokage, one of his eyebrow raised.

The old Sarutobi nodded twice. "I see. We wouldn't want to offend them after all. But are you certain we do not need more?"

"Our roster of chunin is currently sufficient for us to handle all our missions," explained the Nara with his left-hand palm open and up, his index finger pointing surreptitiously toward the left wall. "There is no immediate need to send too many of our genin, especially when our own turn to organize the exams is coming soon."

"Home field advantage, huh?" The Hokage said more than asked while slowly nodding again. "Speaking of our exam, a new village has expressed interest in joining in."

"Oh?"

"Indeed, Otogakure I believe it is called. It would be a good thing to," taking a long drag of his pipe, the Hokage once again exhaled spiraling smoke. "Increase the standing between them and the village. Unfortunately, we already had some incidents and there is some bad blood." Hiruzen sent the same pointed look at the Nara. "How would you go about it?"

Shikaku nodded and coughed once. "Well, we should extend a friendly hand to them and if they agree, maybe try to show them in a positive light to our ninjas." The Nara coughed again. "We need to keep a close look on them first of course. How much do we know about them already?"

The Hokage sighed. "Not much, I'm afraid." He answered while shrugging slightly before puffing out a long, thin, slithering plume of smoke while the embers in his pipe hissed.

Shikaku refused to outwardly react and slowly sagged back in his chair, the picture perfect of laziness given flesh. "Then we observe until we know more. I would not accept them in our exam for now."

"That would be an opportunity to learn more."

"It would but it would also be inviting a potential snake in the hen house. What does Jiraiya-sama have on this village?"

"I fear Jiraiya has nine other problems to take care of nowadays and Otogakure isn't part of them."

This time, Shikaku's eyebrows rose in an almost imperceptible wince that was beyond his control.

"What could be so important that a new village in the vicinity of Fire Country does not hold his attention?"

The Hokage sighed at his subordinate's sudden bluntness. "I'm afraid I cannot tell you that."

The older man chose this moment to blow a plume of smoke without distinct shape, momentarily masking himself from the Nara's view. Shikaku simply nodded.

"Should we warn them?"

"Jiraiya's leads are thin and revealing too much too soon would hold the risk of making them go to ground."

"Does the threat at least have a name?"

"It comes with the dawn. That is all we know for now." The Hokage sighed and more smoke flew in long strands from his mouth, like rain clouds above earth.

"I see. If that is all, Hokage-sama?"

"May I trust you to come up with something regarding our little discussion?"

"I'll do my best Hokage-sama but I see no short term solution anyway. It will take time."

"I know. You have my thanks Shikaku. I wish you a good day."

"Good day."

* * *

If Naruto had to put a qualificative on his current situation, he would definitely use the word weird.

He was lying on a rather comfortable observation couch in one of the rooms of the closed-off section of the Senju Hashirama hospital, the one reserved for the ANBU. That in itself was nothing out of the ordinary. Naruto had been to the hospital numerous time and now that he was a recruit in ANBU, it only made sense he could access the particular aisle he was in.

The reason he was squirming slightly was the female ANBU currently poking his bare feet and involuntarily tickling him.

"Stop moving recruit."

The masked blond grunted and bit on his lips to stifle a chuckle. "I'm doing my best, 'ttebayo."

The "therapy" was Dragon's last whim to try and see if Naruto's tenketsus could be opened properly, if forcefully. The ANBU, a Hyuuga Naruto had understood, had a bloodline allowing her to see his tenketsus and a special chakra manipulation technique linked to her taijutsu style that could hopefully grant them the desired result.

It had been a few days already since his first "mission" and Dragon had rather enthusiastically described to him how revolutionary his brand of stealth was, if only it could be learned. Not only did Naruto bend the chakra flowing around him in an instinctual way to form the first step of what was commonly referred as the "chameleon cloak" but his naturally half-closed tenketsus also reduced his chakra trail to nothing.

It allowed him to go under the sixth ninja sense, the sensing ability all chakra users possessed to an extent.

The blond might be only moderately talented when it came to tai- and kenjutsu but he was a stealth genius. Of course, it came with the price of making external and overall chakra control completely abysmal.

What it all meant was that Naruto, in addition to his already crazy routine, had to go to the hospital just after dinner to have his tenketsu points massaged by a Hyuuga ANBU in hope that they would relax. If Naruto's tenketsus could be opened, at least around the feet, he could eventually succeed with the vertical walking.

Easier said than done and more ticklish than envisioned. It was the third seance and there were no results.

Naruto yelped when the ANBU poked the sole of his right foot without warning, a mixed sensation of pins and needles and warmth traveling up his leg in a second. The aftermath of the strike left the blond with the feeling someone was caressing his foot with a feather. It took the boy a deep breath to avoid laughing. He had done so a few minutes ago and the woman had poked him on the side, which had been very unpleasant.

The ANBU hummed and looked up at Naruto.

"I want to test something. Gather chakra in your right foot and push it out on my signal. You can do that?"

Naruto rolled his eyes and drawled his answer, "hai", before he focused on his task. A few seconds later, he gave the improvised masseuse a thumb up.

"At my signal… Three, two, one, now!"

The woman cried and as Naruto pulsed his chakra outward his right feet, she struck the sole of the same feet. The blond had to once again stifle a laugh when the ticklish sensation came back with a vengeance, this time with an intensity stronger than the simple strike had ever evoked.

"Ah!"

It was only the content, victorious exclamation of the ANBU that kept Naruto from exploding in uncontrolled laughter by startling him. With three quick breaths, the boy controlled his urge and relaxed his facial muscles.

"Something happened?" The blond asked with both trepidation and curiosity. ANBU agents were not really talkative and Hyuuga even less so, so the sudden shout and the fist pump was really surprising.

"I got one open!" The woman clamored, the satisfaction of having a hermetic problem finally cracking open evident in her voice. "I think it is staying open."

Naruto could not help but smile behind his mask. That was mighty good news for him. If he could open all his tenketsus, no doubt his chakra control would improve a bit. He kept himself from hollering his joy because while it was progress, nothing could say yet if it was permanent or not. And Tiger would undoubtedly know if he allowed his emotions to surface too loudly and that would earn Naruto a punch.

"That's good, right?" The blond opted to say. He was still allowed a bit of enthusiasm after all; he only had to control the decibel output. The woman simply silenced him with a raised, open palm. For a minute, none moved.

Eventually, the ANBU looked at the boy. "More than a full minute and it's still good. No way to tell if it won't close up again anytime soon but I'd say that's progress. Let's wrap this up for today, I'm done."

"Hai. You want me to report in your stead?"

"No, it's okay. I was more careful today so I won't have a repeat of our first try." The ANBU said as she stood up, massaging her neck. "But thanks."

"Thank you for helping me, Owl-san."

"Right. Now hush, run along."

Without losing another second, Naruto put his shoes back on, hopped off the couch, and after a light bow, darted out of the room.

Owl sighed and groaned as she kept massaging her neck. Those "massages" were exhausting for her. For a full hour, she had to keep her byakugan activated and poke at the feet of a teenager using the reverse Jyuuken.

The Jyuuken was a taijutsu style based on closing the opponent's tenketsus, causing the affected area to cramp up and become paralyzed. It was a feared style, if exclusive and chakra intensive because it required the byakugan to see the tenketsus and each strike had to be charged with chakra. It was a style designed to take down multiple opponents quickly.

Of course, the Hyuuga, in their wisdom, had developed a technique counter to it, because waiting for a Jyuuken strike to dissipate was long and, in some situation, bothersome to not say dangerous. During training for example; nobody liked to have to wait three hours for feelings to come back to their legs or to risk cardiac arrest because of a misjudged strike.

The idea was to force the blond's semi-closed tenketsus open with the reverse Jyuuken, so here she was, poking feet until near exhaustion.

Thank the Flame he had the decency of washing himself after his day of training. It was already weird poking at feet, it would have been several times worse had they been smelly. The ANBU shuddered at the thought before she sighted. She dearly hoped nobody would ever learn of those sessions. She knew she was being ridiculous and that it was purely professional but she was also familiar with the kind of humor "en vogue" in the ANBU corps.

She would not stand for sexual jokes about pubescent boys and foot fetishism!

Owl groaned again. She had little hopes for the story to not get out. Everyone always ended up knowing everything in ANBU. A family it was and a family of gossips at that.

Not that surprising, considering it was a family entirely comprised of ninjas.

The ANBU stretched one last time before she gathered a few things and exited the hospital room, not before washing her hands with a copious amount of soap and water. She still had to report the potential progress to her commander. Dragon was taking a very personal interest in this blond recruit and Owl was beginning to have serious suspicion regarding his identity.

He had practically given the boy away by calling him "the prankster king" three days ago during his first virtual mission and there was only one person with this shade of blond hair in Konoha but Owl would not say anything before having seen his face.

They were all ninjas after all and deception was their job. For all she knew, the kid hiding behind the mask was not at all who she thought he was.

In a tired gait, the operator walked out of the hospital and flickered to the entrance of the underground complex in five jumps. A minute later and her knuckles were rasping against the door of her general.

"Enter." The distorted monotone called from behind the panel, which Owl pushed open and closed behind her immediately.

"Owl reporting, general."

"Ah, yes. How goes our little pedicure?"

The ANBU gulped down a retort. She could bite the head of her top commander off without repercussion. She was already tired of massaging feet, she did not want to peel potatoes.

"With due respect, general?"

"Go ahead."

"Could we say we have already had a good laugh, forgo the jokes, and move to the point?" Owl asked pleadingly.

Dragon looked at her silently for a few seconds. Owl could feel him staring at her and she started to sweat bullets. Had she crossed the line? Suddenly, she saw her commanding officer shake.

"It's a shame, I had a really good one prepared too. About younger boys and foot fetish." The general said with mirth indubitably coloring his usually blank tone.

For a second, Owl felt nothing but a pure, unaltered fear of her officer before she regained control of herself.

"But you look tired so I guess it won't be for today." Dragon suddenly spoke with his voice back to its emotionless state. "Report, operator Owl."

The woman felt her body sag slightly in relief, reassured that the general would not roast her beyond recovery of self-esteem and she coughed once to clear her voice.

"I believe we had a breakthrough today. Shortly before the end of the seance, I decided to try something slightly different. Until now, using the reverse Jyuuken to open the recruit's tenketsus was successful but only for a second. I asked the recruit to pulse chakra out of his foot and tried to strike at this exact moment. There was too much chakra for my byakugan to discern clearly what happened but the end result is the boy has now an open tenketsu in the middle of his right foot."

"What prompted this test?"

Owl shrugged. "Honestly? The lack of progress of the other method. I saw no reason to keep going when it was clearly unsuccessful."

"It could have hurt him."

"I pondered it for the entire session and saw no potential risk. At worst, it would have done nothing but blast away my chakra strike."

Dragon laced his fingers together and rested his chin on them, his elbow firmly planted on the desk. "No ill-effects at all?"

"None my byakugan could detect at least."

"And the tenketsus is open."

"Yes, it was still open when he left, five minutes after the strike."

The commander hummed. "The combination of his chakra plus the reverse Jyuuken worked. What could it mean…"

"With your authorization, I would like to treat a more easily accessible tenketsu tomorrow with the same method."

"What did you have in mind?"

"The tenketsus on the hands are easier for our byakugan to read. I was thinking one on the palm."

Once again the general hummed, his gaze lost somewhere in the wall opposite his desk before they focused on the operator.

"Thinking of giving him a handjob already?"

Owl whined as all color lost her face behind her mask. "Oh Flame no, please no!"

* * *

It took another two days before the final verdict fell. There was a way for Naruto to open his tenketsus. The blond "just" had to learn the reverse Jyuuken and apply it internally. The venerable taijutsu style being a clan secret, the solution spoke of untold political jousting. Dragon simply ordered Naruto to keep training while he cashed in some favors and gathered the necessary support for the little play.

Clan knowledge was jealously guarded by the Konoha Founding Charter, a corpus of laws protecting the clans from being unjustly exploited by the powers that be. The Village Hidden in the Leaves was, at its core, a federation of allied clans that accepted to work together to avoid fighting against each other. The Hokage's word was not omnipotent. It did carry a lot of power but some touchy subjects were off limits. Ninjas were fans of their secrets, after all, it came with the profession.

Uchiha were never thieving bastards outside of the battlefield in the first place because if they had been, their demise would have happened much sooner.

Days passed with the same routine and the blond boy simply kept at it, progressing by leaps and bound in everything he worked on, save vertical walking of course.

The virtual missions were gradually becoming harder and harder and at the end of the third week, Naruto had been tasked with tagging a particularly paranoid chunin. The blond's target had not only been warned but the high command had also asked the ninja to be ever on guard for the entire day, to complicate the boy's life. It had taken a treasure of ingenuity to be successful.

It was exactly that that Naruto was explaining to his superior officer.

"Report, recruit," Tiger ordered in his tone that let nothing transpire. On either side of the seated man stood Cat and Dog.

"Hai. Today at eight in the morning I was given the mission to tag chunin Iwana Akame as part of a virtual elimination mission," said Naruto as professionally as he was capable to be.

Iwana Akame was a career chunin. The man was thin and wiry, with facial features rather rough and disgraceful, a missing eye hidden under an eyepatch, and his hair covered by a bandana sporting his _hitai-ite_.

He was also one of the ninjas who wanted absolutely nothing to do with Naruto. The man had been rather vocal about it several times during the blond's youth.

"I localized the target with the aid of several shadow clones as the mission scroll did not give any indication about Iwana's location. I found the target at nine forty-five approximately. I stalked him, finding no opportunity to approach him until he entered a small restaurant, "Shape of the Egg", to eat lunch."

The restaurant was one where Naruto never could eat at. The staff was content with completely ignoring his existence, making it impossible to simply order food.

It was at this moment of his retelling that a smile found its way on the blond's face, hidden by the porcelain of his mask.

"The target ordered a rice omelet and I decided it was a perfect opportunity to act." The blond did his best to subdue the mirth that was fighting to enter his voice. "I substituted a clone with a waitress, transformed into her, while another clone secured her. I myself entered the restaurant under a henge and placed myself in an adequate position."

Naruto took a deep breath to avoid laughing. "I tripped my henged clone who crashed the rice omelet dish on the target's face, smashing the paralysis tag hidden under the rice on his nose. I distracted the target long enough for that to happen by having my henged clone reveal a bit of her cleavage. He dispelled immediately after. The commotion was great enough that I was never suspected."

"Was smashing a rice omelet dish square against chunin Iwana's face really necessary?"

Naruto shrugged at the question. "It was a good opportunity."

"Chunin Iwana's nose was broken by the impact." Tiger deadpanned.

"And you wasted a perfectly good rice omelet." Dog added, perfectly serious if her body language were to be believed.

Naruto hesitated a second. "Well… You don't get to an egghead without breaking some omelet?" Panting to contain his laughter, the blond fought to not fold in two and stand straight. "Or… Or something like that?"

A snort, coming from somewhere behind Tiger, nearly made Naruto lose his battle against the mounting bout of hysterical laughter he was desperately trying to keep inside his chest.

"Chunin Iwana's broken nose is swollen." The ANBU sergeant spoke in a slow voice and its emotionlessness was a special kind of torture for the boy. "Do you know what it looks like, recruit?" The operator's tone suddenly had a dangerous edge to it.

"N-No."

"It looks like a hard boiled egg," supplied Dog.

This time, it was Naruto's turn to snort. It gave way to peals of laughter that asked for nothing but to escape his constricted throat.

"I see you do not take this debriefing seriously, recruit?"

"Ah ah ah, n-no! I… Ah ah, I do!"

"Is there something funny for you to be laughing like that, recruit?"

"I… I… No, sergeant!" Naruto answered in-between deep, calming breaths.

Behind Tiger, Dog was mimicking with her hands a nose swelling to comical proportions. Naruto silently swore to get revenge in some fashion as he fought once against the urge to laugh. It was a fight he nearly lost again until Cat elbowed her younger colleague to make her stop. The blond breathed widely to center himself.

"You need to be able to repress such outburst recruit. An ANBU rarely laughs while on duty and debriefing is part of the mission. You can't laugh when the Daimyo of River Country enters a room yet he is the most hilarious looking man I have ever seen."

The boy had difficulties to imagine Tiger laughing but nodded. It was true that an ANBU laughing at the appearance of a lord would not make for a good advertisement for the village. Naruto straightened and saluted.

"Hai sergeant. I'll do my best so that it won't happen again."

"Good. Now about your methods. While unorthodox, they have the merit to work perfectly. You weren't caught; actually, you weren't caught once during the week, no matter the alertness of your target. You intelligently struck during moments when the target was relatively relaxed, which lowers their guard and partly ensure the success of your plan. You also show great imagination and quick thinking, as you can think of a working solution in nary a second. In fewer words, you performed adequately."

Naruto beamed behind his mask. Tiger giving praise was a rare thing so the blond allowed himself to bask in the compliment for a second before he brusquely bent his torso to the right to avoid the brace of shuriken his instructor had just hurled at him.

"Stay focused."

The blond muttered a "love you too, taicho" under his breath and stood straight again. "Hai, sergeant."

"Starting next week, you'll get different missions. It is too soon for you to try and tag jonins but you'll be started on what we call "long distance removal". You'll have a few days to establish contact with the target, find out patterns and whatnot, and prepare whatever you need. The catch is that you or your clones cannot approach the target to tag them. You'll have to find another solution."

Naruto's blue eyes widened behind his mask. That definitely sounded tough but after a second of reflexion, it was nothing impossible either. He had led his fair share of chunin inside traps of his own making that could trigger automatically. Finding a way to tag his targets without being close to them was far from intimidating for Naruto Uzumaki.

The blond focused again on his instructor when Tiger extended his hand, a folded note in it.

"If you ever seek help, know that Crane Five is our foremost expert regarding trap making in our company." The man said, explaining the content of the paper.

Taking the slip of paper, the blond simply nodded. "Hai. I'll not hesitate."

"You are dismissed. See you in two hours and a half at the training ground."

The boy saluted in a fluid motion, an elegant position that was a lightyear away from the sloppy stance he had assumed, three weeks ago, in the Hokage's office. Naruto stood like that for a second before he turned heels and exited the room. Silence fell in the room and on the three shinobis still inside.

"So, verdict?" Cat asked suddenly.

"Physically, he is chunin-level without a doubt, even if he probably does not even realize it himself. All his skills are coming along nicely, considering he was a dead last genin twenty days ago."

"All his skills but one, taicho," interjected Dog. "I'll admit I… Misjudged him and acted bellow what was expected of me at first but it does not change the fact he cannot walk vertically."

"Dragon is taking care of that, Dog. We all saw how his virtual missions went this week. All completed within three hours save the one for today due to the extra complication. Never detected, never using a single jutsu save the shadow clone and the transformation."

"The shadow clone is a pretty powerful jutsu," remarked Cat in a neutral way.

"Yes, now think about what he'll be capable of with genjutsu in his arsenal."

"I'd wager genjutsu will be impossible for him, Sarge. He is a walking chakra reactor but his control is abysmal."

"Nothing that cannot be worked on."

"You are very enthusiastic taicho." Cat said suddenly, stopping her leader in his tracks.

The man kept silent for a few seconds as his subordinates and friends observed him.

"I'll admit that I enjoy teaching the boy. He has a modicum of talent and the will to see things through. Do you think it is impeding my judgment of his capacities?" Tiger asked, with in his voice a slight hesitation that betrayed his worry.

Cat hummed. "You deal with him more than we do taicho, you know him better than us. I do admit that for someone who graduated not a month ago, his progress is off the charts but I think that would be true for anyone with three dedicated teachers and enough chakra to create shadow clones en masse. I've no doubts he will make a fine ninja and I do think your evaluation of his capacities is correct but personally, I've yet to see what makes him worthy of ANBU."

"We will only get this kind of feedback from real missions, Cat." The man opposed, his tone back to its dull monotony.

"Real missions he is supposed to begin in three weeks, sergeant." The woman answered, pressing. "You said it yourself, taicho, he will be held to the same expectation of other recruits. He won't be able to begin his missions if he cannot master vertical walking and that means _de facto_ elimination from the trials."

Silence fell again on the three figures.

"What say you Dog?" Tiger asked his second soldier suddenly.

For a few seconds, all could hear the distinct sound of someone sucking on the inner flesh of their cheek, before the teenage ANBU spoke.

"I don't know anymore taicho. The kid is strong-willed for sure and anyone with half his handicaps would have given up. That's what makes a damn good ninja for sure but joining the family… Yeah." Dog shrugged. "I fully wish he would get this damn vertical walking under control but like Cat, I do reserve judgment until I see him under fire."

"I see." Tiger joined his fingers together once again to rest his chin on. "I admit I had several discussion with the recruit, discussions that make me believe he has what it takes. That being said, the decision is collegial and Dragon-sama did stipulate that he would not benefit from any kind of favoritism."

The man sighed. "Dog, you'll work closely with Owl in order to find a solution. I ask you to trust me on this but it would be a waste for the corps to lose Uzumaki."

"Hai Sarge, I'll do my best."

"Cat, I want all the clones you'll get under your supervision to work on chakra flow within senbon. That should help him with his personal vertical walking technique."

"Hai, taicho."

"Good. Meeting adjourned, let's go have lunch ladies, my treat."

"Oh? Where are we going?" Asked Dog with a twinge of excitement in her voice at the prospect of being invited by her captain.

"The central ANBU cafeteria." The man deadpanned.

"So smooth taicho." The teenage girl grumbled while Cat shook her head.

* * *

"Hiashi-san."

"Dragon."

There was nothing but coldness in Hiashi Hyuuga's voice as the Clan patriarch greeted the ANBU commander who was darkening his doorstep. It was considered bad omen to have him knocking on your door. Ninjas were surprisingly superstitious regarding certain things and ANBU was one such subject. They were the boogeymen, the small bunch of assassins that kept the larger bunch of assassins in check, with extreme prejudice if needed be. A parent did not threaten their child with tales of nuke-nin, ninja traitor to their home, but with stories of the dogs mad enough to hunt them.

"To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"We have a rather urgent deal to pass."

Hiashi tensed in his grey kimono and his pale, almost white eyes narrowed slightly. What Dragon had just done was the first error in negotiating anything. Never admit to any weakness. To anyone, admitting the business was urgent was allowing the other party to ask for a higher price.

With Dragon, it meant you better walk on the straight and narrow and accept his conditions quickly enough. The man had enough dirt on each and every Konoha clan, even the most proper of them, to get any of them in jeopardy. The ANBU corps was the Hokage's way to maintain the power balance between himself and the clans and the man hiding behind the mask was known for using it.

"Let us go to my office."

A minute later and the man and the ANBU were seated in a small, spartan office that actually closely resembled ANBU's own workrooms.

"You wish something of me." Hiashi did not ask a question. Dragon would not be here if he had not a demand of some sort.

"I need your official authorization to teach part or totality of your clan's taijutsu to one of my recruits." Dragon explained with his droning voice.

"Why?"

"That is none of your concern. I believe I prepared a contract with enough confidentiality clauses and binding enough for it to be satisfying. I intend to repay this in gold but am open to any other suggestion."

Hiashi Hyuuga had enough control over himself not to flounder at the abrupt rebuttal. The man only narrowed his eyes further. He knew he could not outright refuse Dragon's demand. The man had enough political clout to make life extremely difficult for the Hyuuga. But Hiashi could get a favor out of the man.

And a favor was exactly what he would get.

"Gold is not a problem for the Hyuuga clan."

The ANBU general stopped waving the contract in front of Hiashi's nose and lay it flat on the table.

"What would be your price?"

Despite the modulation intended to make the ANBU's voice as impersonal and lacking in feature as possible, the heavy bass of a threat could be heard clear as day in Dragon's question.

Hiashi felt his lips dry up and the man discreetly humidified them with his tongue. The Hyuuga swallowed once, brought a long strand of straight brown hair back behind his ear, and steeled his resolve. Positioning his hands flat against the table, the man pushed his chakra inside to wire of conductive steel.

The entire walls lit up, a network of conductive steel embedded in the wall shining through the paint, obscuring the office from any byakugan-based indiscretion.

"I find myself in a position I do not find satisfactory, Dragon. My power as the clan head is… Undermined constantly. I'm in need of some… Support."

The room fell silent and Dragon and Hiashi started a glaring contest, one the Hyuuga lost, much to his secret shame. The man mentally reminded himself that wearing a mask during a staring contest was definitely cheating before berating himself for caring about such a childish thing.

"I see. And this support would take form as?"

"A set-up and the following arrest."

"You would do that to your very clansmen."

"Their belief in their own superiority has since long turned into arrogance. It hurts us. And this kind of accident would allow me to finally see eye to eye with the laws passed by our Daimyo."

"I see. I have no reason to refuse, you'll have the support of some of my men when the time comes. The set-up is on you. The Hokage cannot be linked to this. It reeks of a violation of the Clan Charter."

"Of course. Who will be my contact?"

"Someone good enough to avoid your eyes. If that is all, sign this paper. Time is tight and I don't doubt it is the same for you."

"Of course." With a gasp of exhaustion, the man stopped pulsing his chakra and took a moment to recuperate. In a few quick but elegant motions, Hiashi signed the paper. Both men rose from their seat, the Hyuuga on shaky legs.

"It was a pleasure making business with you, Hiashi-san."

The Hyuuga hesitated a second, flashed his byakugan for an instant, and took a step closer to Dragon to whisper low.

"It needs to happen quickly. They hold a power too great for them, over innocents. I will not stand for half of my clan being taken hostage by a bunch of fools." Hiashi's plea was hurried and pressing.

"It will be swift as thunder, Hiashi-san. We'll only wait for your signal." Dragon assured calmly in return before his voice rose again. "I wish you a good day, Hyuuga-san."

* * *

Naruto stood at attention in front of Dragon in the office of the general. It was a very small cubicle, without any kind of decoration. It was dry, lifeless, with the wall painted a drab maroonish color past its prime and the entirety of the pieces of furniture old and squeaky. For the second most powerful man in the village after the Hokage, it was certainly not what Naruto was expecting.

For Flame's sake, Dragon did not even have a framed picture. There was always at least a framed picture of someone on the boss' desk, right?

Apparently not or maybe Dragon did not buy into the traditional boss act. It was probably it, Naruto surmised.

"Do you know why I called you here, recruit?" The fake voice of the general called the blond back to the present.

Naruto nodded once and answered in a measured tone. "Hai. I believe it is to inform me of a potential solution for my tenketsu problem."

It still felt weird for Naruto to speak like that. "Like that" meaning without screaming, using words that did not really exist, nor onomatopoeia or wide gestures. It felt ordered, efficient, professional.

The blond liked it even if he was not yet used to it.

"Indeed. Your next task is to learn the reverse Jyuuken. The objective is for you to be able to internally open and close your tenketsu at will. If your attempt is successful, this method shall be taught to all the corps to better our stealth."

The blond's blue eyes widened behind his mask. That would be a rather big contribution to Konoha if he was not mistaken, something he could be proud of.

"I will not lie to you recruit, it will not be an easy task, especially considering you have a time limit."

Naruto felt his breath catch in his throat. A time limit? Dragon had never been forthcoming as to the length of Naruto's trial run yet now he was imposing a time limit to learn something that would obviously be difficult? The blond breathed in deeply and frowned.

"Might I know the reason for the time limit?"

"Because your assessment is coming to a close. Any new recruit is given a month and a half for acclimatization before they must go on missions. Without vertical walking, you cannot be allowed to go."

Naruto squashed down the fury he felt mounting within his chest and took another deep breath. Closing his eyes for a second, the blond oscillated back and forth before he glared at Dragon.

"Permission to take freely requested, general."

The ANBU marked a pause before he answered. "Granted."

Naruto tried his best to control himself but his question came loaded with more venom than he had expected. "Did you set me up to fail?"

Dragon paused once again for a second before lacing his fingers to rest his chin on top. "Why would you believe that?"

The blond had to bite on the flesh of his cheek to not hurl insults at the man sitting in front of him. Naruto swallowed to clear his mouth of the verbal poison he was ready to pour on the man and tightly leashed his need to burst. His voice was only slightly shaking with contained anger when he spoke.

"While I do not doubt that I will be able to master whatever is thrown at me, I do not believe I will learn the Jyuuken in a matter of three weeks. I will obviously fail."

Dragon looked at Naruto but kept silent. Behind his blank, white mask, the blond was left to wonder what the man could have been thinking. After at least a long minute, the general cleared his throat.

"The reports from operative Tiger denote a will to never give up a task. Are you giving up, recruit?"

"With due respect, Dragon-sama, it is not what I said." The blond answered frostily.

"Do you doubt your capacities?"

"Not in the least. If anything, I have a clearer idea of what they are. But the first lesson I learned here was the need to limit them with humility. Or do you not remember, Dragon-sama?"

For a second, the temperature in the room dropped below zero and Naruto fully expected to be killed on the spot for his impertinence. Much like when Tiger had blasted him with his killing intent, Naruto felt his breathing stop, his body lock up, and primal parts of his brain started to order him to flee. Suddenly, the air was breathable again and the blond nearly peed himself as his body relaxed almost against his will.

"You have a willful tongue, recruit. Be careful that it does not lead you astray."

"Hai, general," said the boy with a crack in his voice.

"To answer your question, no I did not set you up. I promised you and my soldiers you would not benefit from any favor. I could not foresee this problem you are encountering right now."

"You could have asked, I'd have told you my weakness was chakra control." Naruto retorted in an emotionless tone of voice.

"You could have talked."

"No teacher ever listened to me. And didn't you have a detailed file on me anyway?"

At that, Dragon sighed. "I never imagined the problem would be that big. It is the first time I ever hear of such a condition. You cannot accuse me of not having anticipated such a unique thing, can you?"

Naruto slowly shook his head no. Indeed he could not. As much as some people may have had actively worked against him, sometimes it was simply bad luck that impeded him. Simply, stupid bad luck, unrelated to anyone, just fate beating on a dead horse and striking him with yet another complication related to his condition. The commander sighed again and rose from his chair, circling around his desk to stand in front of the blond. Dragon squeezed the boy's right shoulder

"We identified the problem and we came up with a solution, recruit." The general's tone was stern, admonishing almost. "I made you a promise I'd give you a fair chance and I keep my promise." The man continued, his voice almost gentle this time despite the mask's alteration. "You learned the shadow clone technique in an hour. You have already accomplished the impossible so I trust you'll succeed at your task within the next three weeks."

Naruto felt himself vibrate along with the sheer confidence he could hear in the man's tone.

Dragon trusted him?

Dragon trusted him.

The blond silently swore that the man would not have his trust disappointed.

* * *

Naruto turned and tossed in his bed. It seemed that, deep as he was in the guts of the Hokage Mountain, sleep could not find him. The blond knew why of course. It had been time for him to assimilate the memories of the clones sent to the library and of the lone replica sent to the Mission Assignment Desk.

The blond felt his eyes prickle when the memories of his clone working alongside the old man, giving the Sarutobi the coldest shoulder possible, circle within his mind.

How much time would Naruto, could Naruto, continue like this? The blond had no idea but he knew the mental images were akin to torture for him.

He wanted nothing more than to shrugg his anger of and hug the man he considered as and called his grandfather but he could not allow himself to do that. That Hokage was the target of all his pent up aggression and rage. He could not allow the old man to be off the hook yet. Not as long as his anger against Konoha had not petered out and left him. He could not allow himself to feel his rage against his village, he did not know what he would do if the pit of destructive fire were to be let out.

So he kept being angry at the Hokage. He kept being angry at his grandfather. He kept at bay the one man that had always been there for him.

Could Naruto really weight off twelve years of lies against twelve years of love?

The blond forced his eyes closed as bitter tears streamed silently down his cheeks.

* * *

**A/N: I hope you enjoyed. I feel conflicted. Do I write Naruto struggling to learn the reverse Jyuuken? I am afraid to completely kill my pace if I do so. Answer in a review!**

**P.S: if you understood nothing to Hiruzen and Shikaku's discussion... It's kind of a little game for you to solve. I've never described smoke so accurately.**


	10. Chapter 10 Initiate

**A/N: Hello all. Before you begin, I'll ask you to reread the end of chapter 9, that I modified slightly by adding a short paragraph. Are you done? Then enjoy all this that I do not own.  
**

**Sob sob.**

* * *

Naruto was watching from the top of the Hokage Mountain as in front of him, far off to the west, the sun was slowly disappearing, bathing Konoha in an orange hue. Quite ironic, for a population that positively hated orange, to have some of the most magnificent sunsets of the entire continent. Naruto's old orange suit had not been just an eyesore. At least as far as the boy was concerned.

Today had been the boy's rest day, something everyone had insisted he take to wind down rather than to train. Tiger had reminded him that even he was not immune to wounding himself and that resting was an important part of any kind of work.

Tomorrow, a new Monday would come and he would have exactly three weeks to uncover the secrets of the Jyuuken and adapt it to his problem. It was not an absolutely perfect solution, as Owl had discovered that during his sleep, any open tenketsu would close off again, but it was of no real consequence for him. If he was asleep, he did not need to pulse chakra.

The only problem would be a possible ambush and the need to use chakra quickly but that was quite the isolated case. No, all in all, it was a good solution for now.

The blond squeezed his two fists and let out a growling huff of determination. He was definitely going to learn it. He had the trust of Dragon and he could not betray that. The ANBU general had been sincere in the help he had provided Naruto. He had yet to betray his word and the blond knew to repay that. He could not disappoint. For himself and for the efforts Dragon, Tiger, Dog, and Cat had invested unto him to rectify and further his training, he had no right to falter during the last part of the run.

He had too much to gain and he had started to find things to lose as well.

Naruto knew that overcoming this last challenge meant to be bestowed the mask of the initiate. He would advance a step closer to the family he had so dreamed of, for so long. He would be eternally grateful to the Sarutobi, to the Ichiraku, to Iruka, but they had never adopted him.

ANBU would, if he could prove he deserved the war paints. He would be an unmovable part of the third company and the red claws on his mask would ascertain he belonged there. He would become their brother. He would not abandon them.

The blond had a confident smile that faltered when his eyes swept over Konoha. Even after three weeks, the anger he could feel deep within him was unrelenting. He had yet to talk to anyone about it. ANBU training was the greatest of all distraction. It kept him busy. It did not allow him any time.

It barred him from working out this chaotic mess he could feel weighing down on his chest. From his towering position over the village hidden in the leaves, the blond had a view that only brought conflicting thoughts to his mind. It had not changed since a week ago since he had last reflected on it but Naruto knew it had to. He could not keep going like this.

He knew it was eating at him. His behavior during the training against the dummy, his actions during some of the mock mission were proofs of that. Bouts of violence or small cruelties that he was not used to feeling or committing were as many signs. Those were not him but his anger, that much he had understood.

It hurt too much to keep alive the fire of his anger against the Hokage. It was too painful to keep being spiteful toward his grandfather. Especially as part of this rage was fake, reported, displaced. Hiruzen was Naruto's black sheep much like the blond himself had been the village's.

The difference was that Hiruzen Sarutobi was the boy's grandfather, and Naruto missed him, whereas no one missed Naruto. Except for said grandfather.

The blond boy sighed heavily. He had to talk with the Hokage. Naruto knew Hiruzen was enduring his obstinate silence with patient sadness. The blond could see it in the old man's eyes when he assimilated the memories of his clone. It was an uncomfortable _status quo_ for both of them.

The boy balled his fists. If it was so, he had to break it. Naruto Uzumaki did not dwell on things yet what did he do? Dwelling, exactly! It was unacceptable, 'ttebayo. He could still be angry and not forgive, it did not mean he had to suffer from it. It was ridiculous. He had to stop sulking and talk to his Jijie again.

If he could not wait for his anger to pass, he would chase it away. The thought brought a smile to Naruto's face. That was the Uzumaki way, being proactive and all, 'ttebayo!

* * *

"How are we going to do this?" Naruto questioned his instructors as they all stood at the entrance of the Warmer.

"You have three weeks. In three weeks, you must master the solution, keep training in the necessary techniques of ANBU, and execute at least six long distance removals." Tiger explained to his charge, who nodded.

"What I propose," continued the sergeant, "is that you manage those mission however you want, with the shadow clones. I'm also thinking of allowing you to create more shadow clones at once for training. You still need to be physically here with me for physical conditioning."

"How much can I afford to cut down?"

Tiger hesitated for the fraction of a second, something Naruto did not notice. "Not much," answered the man.

It was a lie. The blond could stop working out as hard as usual for a little while, as his physic was already high-chunin level, but Tiger did not want the boy to slack off. If anything, the challenge was once more an opportunity to push his student. Another test the man expected Naruto to pass with brio.

The blond thought for a second about his sergeant's words. If he could not cut down on the workout, it meant the blond had to complete faster what could be completed fast. He would need to run up the warmer quicker than ever to gain some respite. He would need to execute his mandatory five hundred full counts in less time than before.

He could do it. He would do it.

"How will I work? I mean with whom?"

"Owl and Dog here will both work with you."

Naruto nodded. "Alright. Then I don't have time to lose. Let's begin. Shadow Clones Jutsu!" The boy bit out while crossing his fingers.

In a puff of smoke, sixteen clones of the blond appeared. Five went to Cat, five to Dog and Owl, five other to the library, and the last one to the Mission Assignment Desk.

Dragon believed in him, he would not disappoint. He had a future family to impress and make proud. His eyes set in steel, Naruto saluted before he went against the Warmer. His current time was a little below two hours. A leap compared to the three hours he had needed three weeks ago.

He would need to reach below the bar of the hour and a half. With fire under his step, Naruto began the race against the last three weeks.

As the original blond was running, the first batch of shadow clones under Cat followed the ANBU to their usual room. While three were allowed to take a wooden, training sword, two were given senbons and taught how to circulate chakra into the weapon.

It was Dragon's hope that if the boy could refine and sharpen the flow of his chakra out of the needle, it would help him make progress with his personal wall walking technique.

The second group was led by Dog and Owl in a room that differed from the usual, bowl-shaped one. It was more of a dojo. Owl motioned for all the clones to sit down and cleared her throat.

"What you are going to learn is the mirror of my clan's taijutsu. It does not have a proper name but we call it the reverse-Jyuuken. First, you need to understand how the Jyuuken itself works."

The clones nodded silently.

"The goal of the Jyuuken is to seal the tenketsus of the enemy. When a tenketsu is sealed off completely, it creates a strong unbalance in the chakra flow. Tenketsus do not only make up the external vent system for chakra to escape but they are also the points from where chakra flow into our muscles, bones, and all of our organs. Do you understand?"

"Hai sensei. We studied it in the Academy." One clone answered.

Owl nodded once, sharply. "Excellent. It means you know that we barely understand how our chakra coils work, just what they do. As such, do not ask me why the Jyuuken works, as I have no idea."

"Hai," chorused all five replicas.

"Good. A user of the Jyuuken mold what is called Yin chakra. The little we know about this chakra tells us that it "creates form" as vague as it is," Owl explained, her hands mimicking quotation mark at the end. "Our elders understand the Jyuuken as us rewriting the state of our enemy's tenkentus. Are you following me?"

"I think I do," said a clone. "Like an eraser of a sort? Then you decide if it's open or closed?"

"The image is rough but yeah, like that."

"Okay. How do we do that? This Yang chakra?"

Owl joined her hands in a strange sign: the extremities of her thumbs were touching, her index and major fingers were laced, forming a circle with the thumbs, and her ring and little fingers were straight and away from the rest.

"This sign is the equivalent of the cross sign for Yang chakra, the one you use-"

"For shadow clone," completed one blond replica.

"Your goal is to mold this chakra through the sign and expel it from the tip of your fingers at first. The second step is to imagine a river flowing when you hit your tenketsus. That is the mental picture we use to command an opening. The third step will be to pulse this chakra from all your tenketsus all around your body. Understood."

"Hai hai."

"Good." The theory explained, Owl fished a scroll from within her cloak. Unsealing its content, she revealed ten little lump of wet earth. "Remember what the characteristic of Yin chakra is?"

"It gives form." One Naruto answered after a moment of hesitation.

"Exact. Once you mold Yin chakra, pulse it through this earth and mold it with your mind. Once you get a decent result, we will try hitting your tenketsus of the real you with me as a guide. One of you meditate. Your goal will be to identify where your tenketsus are located. All good?"

"Hai."

"Begin!"

* * *

It could not be simple of course. It had taken two meager days for Naruto to figure out the emplacement of his tenketsus from meditation. As some form of just retribution from Fate, the Yin manifestation evidently _had_ to be apparently impossible for him.

A week had already gone by and Naruto, despite trying his best, could not, for the life of him, shape the earth into anything with a proper form. It was not looking good for him and he had no intention to wait for a miraculous breakthrough that had no business happening.

The blond had asked Tiger for an exceptional break. He had a favor to cash in and he wanted to do it in person. Naruto breathed in deeply and entered the Mission Assignment Desk. The Hokage owned the boy a jutsu and it was the perfect occasion to mend some bridges and act on his decision.

No one paid any attention to Naruto when he crossed the room. The ninjas working at the Desk were by now all used to seeing the blond boy sit to the Hokage's right. As time had passed, more and more shinobis were now greeting Naruto rather cordially, some with a smile even. The blond had proved he could work right and had never burdened the office with a mistake as of yet, which had certainly mellowed the opinion of the more unsure chunin present in the room.

Naruto bowed to the Hokage, who was already sitting in his chair, getting ready for the day. "Hello, Sarutobi-sama."

The Hokage sighed imperceptibly and waved the formality away like he had been doing for the past few weeks. "Hello, Naruto."

The boy nodded and sat at his place and started to examine the various "orders" coming from all around Fire Country and beyond.

The shinobi business was a strange world. All requests could not rightly be accepted, of course. It was, supposedly, the difference between ninjas sent by a hidden village and rogues: in the former case, the missions were more or less legally approved by a higher corpus of laws, in the latter case they were not.

People could not ask Konoha to just murder their ex-wife, or their mother-in-law, no matter how much money they were ready to spend. It was illegal. Or rather, you had to possess the political clout of a Daimyo to do so and even then, it was bad taste to be discovered. Cold-blooded murder outside of battle was frowned upon and assassination was not that common of a political move.

Subtler manipulations and set-ups were okay but even then, there was a problem. Konoha had a double alliance with the ruling family of Fire Country. Firstly, against a sum of gold paid each year by the Daimyo, the Leaf had to answer all calls to arm as long as they were defensive. Secondly, in exchange for monopoly over certain market opportunities, Konoha was not to take any action that could damage the royal family and it was sometimes difficult to puzzle if a mission could have such consequences.

Those were the two official terms and Naruto had no doubt there was more to it. ANBU would not have existed otherwise.

As for the rest of the countless nobles of various importance swarming the luxurious corridors of the Red Castle, they were fair game -patrons or targets- as long as the Daimyo had not given them a jade pendant. The strangest of things was that, despite the menace of Konoha shinobi storming their house, the nobles kept plotting and scheming, including against the royal family.

One solution found by the nobles to survive was to create a status quo. Konoha shinobis were the only ninja authorized to operate in Fire Country. As such, they were the only line of defense against their own, as they obviously would not fight each other. Nobles would thus pay for a team of shinobi to escort them, nullifying any team hired by a rival to kill them. All that was encouraged by the Hagasuma royal family and carefully monitored by Konoha. It kept the nobles busy and poor. From the court of the Red Castle originated more than half of all the Hidden Leaf's revenues, subventions included.

The Hagasuma clan had truly proved to be the rattlesnakes in the vipers' nest when they had first secured an exclusive alliance with Konoha, some sixty years ago. It had allowed them to form Fire Country and rule it, after all.

The blond flipped through the papers. There were three reports about the escort teams of two counts and one viscount needing to rotate out. Naruto quickly checked the conformity of the payment and stamped it. Three standards B-rank missions for three standard chunin teams.

For a few hours, the boy worked through the files on his desk. Some were internal Konoha business to be given to the shinobi of the inner-barracks, including the rookie teams, some were important contracts from towns and merchant companies that would need a dispatch from the outer-barracks. Naruto verified the payment, analyzed the request, graded the mission, and wrote his recommendation as to the type of team needed.

The task was quite unequally stimulating, considering the mission could range from weeding a garden out to chasing down a wanted criminal. It was not without relief that Naruto heard the bell signifying it was time for lunch. The blond put down his pen -a modern model with a ball at the tip- and stretched as a few ninjas, a genin team to be exact, brought the food. Naruto grinned slightly when he saw who was carrying the takeaway boxes.

"Hello, guys." The blond greeted cheerfully.

"Hey Naruto," answered a lazy Shikamaru Nara while Choji waved. Ino decided to simply send a nod his way. The blonde had become much more respectful after her jonin sensei had finally threatened to take Choji to hit her through the ground after one of her outburst concerning Naruto, their D-rank missions, and Naruto assigning them D-ranked missions. Choji had vigorously protested against the idea of being used as a human hammer.

Shikamaru and Choji, Naruto had discovered, seemed to be in fact "alright" guys. Shikamaru had an ever bored smirk on his face because most other facial expressions were simply too troublesome to make and Choji was kind. If the Akimichi offering some of his chips to the Naruto clone two or three times meant anything, at least. Regret was not something Naruto allowed himself to feel but maybe he could have been friend with those two. They had taken part in some of his pranks after all. Had he been more trusting, or rather, less trusting of the appearances, then maybe...

The blond shook his head. It was wishful thinking by now, one could not change the past. That was not to say they could not become friends now. It would be difficult, as Naruto very rarely had time for himself but they could at least become acquainted.

Neither Shikamaru nor Choji had contested Naruto's headband and that was already a good point in the blond's book. Even if the possible reasons for it were as shallow as it being too troublesome for the first and too much of a break for the latter's eating habits. It was still a good point.

"So, did you succeed with the mission?" The blond asked team seven with a sideways grin.

Shikamaru sighed, his arms hanging by his side as if weighing tons. "Troublesome. We lost a box. You could have warned us."

Naruto shrugged. "You're clever enough to figure it out by yourself." The boy shrugged again. "Next, I can give you the chase where you need to "poison" the food. Or is that too troublesome?"

"Ya know," said Choji in between munches. "I never thought D-rank could be simulations."

"Well..." Naruto threw a glance at the ninjas in the room. "When you work at the desk, you realize almost all D-ranks have a hidden simulation purpose. Why do you think we allow Madame Shimiji to regularly "lose" her cat?" The blond asked in a conspiring tone, mimicking quotation marks to put emphasis on "lose".

"Troublesome. She is your partner in crime." It was not a question and Naruto only sent a wide smile Shikamaru's way.

"I'm not at liberty to say."

"That totally means yes. Troublesome." The lazy Nara looked up before his gaze swept across the large room. "How much for you to pretend it's not available the next time we are here?"

Naruto snorted and held back his laugh. "Is it that terrible?"

"More than you think, Naruto." Choji munched unhappily.

"Team seven, with me," suddenly drawled the white-haired jonin responsible for the Ino-Shika-Cho new generation trio.

"Well, enjoy your afternoon guys."

"Pff, we are gonna run and spar, so troublesome."

The blond had to hold back the urge to squarely punch the Nara in the face, knowing that the pineapple-haired boy would actually thank him for that. "It won't hurt you to move your lazy ass. You'll end up round as an Akimichi but it'll be all grease and no muscles contrary to them!"

"Less troublesome than running."

"You can't invent such laziness, you have to see it." Naruto mumbled, rolling his eyes. "Bye Choji. Bye Ino."

"Bye Naruto," answered a lone, if enthusiastic, Choji.

The blond turned to the tables where the lunch boxes had been opened and sat. Naruto fought a smile when he saw the content of the takeaway. Apparently, today was Sushi Day.

"May I know the reason for your smile, Naruto?" The Hokage inquired in a mellow voice.

The boy shook his head. "Nothing Hokage-sama. I was just reminiscing."

"Oh? About what?"

Naruto turned toward the old man and gave him a mischievous grin. "About how I _love_ wasabi in my sushi."

The elder Sarutobi paled and stuttered in shock. "It… It was you." The Hokage shook himself like a wet dog and pointed a finger at Naruto. "It was you!"

"I have no idea what you are talking about Hokage-sama. Shall we eat?" Naruto waved happily toward a tray of sushi that had been deposited in front of them. The Hokage shot the blond a cautious glare.

Shrugging, the blond took a pair of chopsticks and started eating the little treats of fish and rice. With a content smile, the boy hummed. "Hmm, delicious!" It was the first time he was enjoying a meal for real. For the past weeks, it had been a clone who had had the honor of leeching off the Hokage's food.

Hesitantly, the old man next to him relaxed and decided to taste the sushi. A second later, the Hokage was inhaling the content of the plate. Konoha was miles away from the nearest sea and quality sushi was thus more difficult to make.

It had only become possible thanks to Tsunade Senju selling the technology of her freezing container to a rich industry baron. It was funny how an object originally designed during a war to preserve organs and blood from deteriorating had become something of an everyday, common household appliance to keep vegetables and meat from spoiling.

Naruto's mind was absolutely not on such consideration, as the battle for the last sushi against his Hokage had started.

Five minutes later, Hiruzen had once again proven why he was an excellent ninja by winning a chopstick duel with the young blond and heartily laughing at the frown of disappointment the boy was sporting.

"You are a bit too early to steal the last sushi from me, Naruto," chuckled Hiruzen good-naturedly.

"I can see that… Jijie."

In the silence that followed Naruto's answer, all could hear the Hokage's chopsticks clatter against the ground.

"Naruto?" The old man asked hesitantly, hope piercing through the layer of caution.

The blond sighed before he looked at his surrogate grandfather, which prompted another sigh. "Could we… Talk in private, maybe?" Naruto asked, careful not to sound demanding.

"Of course, Naruto. We have some time before we need to go again." Having said that, the Hokage rose from his seat and beckoned the boy to follow him. In a matter of minutes, the old Kage and the young ninja found themselves in the Hokage's office. Hiruzen waved toward the couch and started to prepare tea.

"Do you know how to prepare tea, Naruto?" The Hokage asked suddenly in a light tone, apparently intent on making small talk.

Naruto shook his head. "Not really no." The boy shrugged. "I mean, with a teabag, I can."

The Hokage snorted slightly. "Everyone can. Come to me and watch. It could be useful for future infiltration missions."

"Hai." Naruto dutifully rose from his place on the couch and approached the little table where the old man was carefully monitoring a pot of water.

"The water must be warm but not too much, or you risk denaturing the taste of the powder."

The boy nodded and watched as the water, slowly but surely, started to shudder as small bubbles came to the surface to break.

"You must wait for those small bubbles to form a layer on the bottom of your pot. Then," joining the motion to the verb, the Hokage took a small spoon and put four spoonfuls of a verdant green powder inside one big bowl before holding the chasen close above the slowly heating water. "You prepare the bowl and you humidify the chasen to brew the tea."

Naruto simply observed, counting in his head roughly the number of seconds the Hokage took to prepare the bamboo made kitchen whip. The blond counted to thirty before Hiruzen poured the hot water in the large bowl and started whipping. Very slowly at first, then more vigorously. A green foam started to appear and thickened on top of the beverage.

"And done. A wonderful matcha tea." Hiruzen said with a relaxed voice. Carefully, the old Kage took the large bowl and brought it to the low table in front of the couch before inviting Naruto to sit again.

"Hosts drink first," informed the Kage who took a sip of the hot drink. "In case I poisoned the tea." Hiruzen said with a wink.

Naruto took the bowl and drank from the other side. With a satisfied sigh, he lay the bowl back on the table. It was an excellent tea. The blond allowed his gaze to wander around the office, going over the portraits of the Hokages on the left wall. The boy was content to stay silent until Hiruzen cleared his throat and spoke.

"So Naruto…"

The boy tore his eyes away from the portraits of the Kages of Konoha past and present and trained his blue orbs on the Sandaime. The blond held the older man's gaze for a few seconds before he faltered and lowered his own. His hands joined together, his fingers started to fidget beyond his control.

"Naruto?"

The blond could not tell what it was in the Hokage's address that made him lift his eyes. Was it the seemingly infinite patience lacing the tone? The warm, loving vibrato in the voice? The simple fact it was his name. Naruto swallowed and faced the Hokage. The child faced his grandfather.

"I'm… I'm still angry you know?"

There was hurt in the older man's eyes as Naruto said that but the blond refused to allow it to stop him. They needed to pass this step first.

"I'm still hurt. You didn't trust me." The blond continued, his voice nearly cracking from repressed emotions.

Sensing the "but" coming, Hiruzen decided to stay silent. Taking a deep, long breath, Naruto centered himself, pushing back the cracks that threatened to make his voice falter and the tears that menaced to blur his eyes.

"But I don't want to stay like that. This… This cold war, this isn't me." Blue orbs peered into black ones, searching. After a second, Naruto broke contact and looked down.

"I can't be angry at my Hokage. But I also don't want to be angry at my family. But..." The blond confessed before abruptly falling silent. His blue eyes darted left and right, refusing to meet the Kage's and his hands started to fidget again.

"Naruto." Hiruzen spoke in a low, slow tone he wanted reassuring. "Please, my boy, you know you can talk to me," assured the older man pleadingly. "What is on your mind?"

Naruto felt his mouth go dry and took a sip of the cooling tea before his tongue darted out to humidify his lips. The boy swallowed and forced himself to meet the Hokage's gaze. In the black eyes of the old Sarutobi, the blond saw acceptance, hurt, but mostly a plea, a wish to make thing right.

Tiger lessons on body language had been successful.

"I'm afraid," Naruto whispered. "I'm afraid that If I'm not angry against you, I'll…" The blond breathed in hard. "I'll be angry against the village!" The boy blurted out quickly.

The Hokage's eyes widened quickly before the Sarutobi tightened them again.

"I know I can't, I know I shouldn't, but I'm angry at them Jijie." The blond whispered precipitately, almost panicking. "I thought… I thought I'd stay angry at you but it doesn't work. And I know I can't… I can't..."

Naruto choked on his words and Hiruzen had to hold back bitter tears when he saw the fear shine inside Naruto's blue eyes. Now the old man knew. He knew why his grandson had refused to talk to him. He had lost so much trust that Naruto had thought the Hokage would act against him if he ever expressed his feelings.

And it was true that, as Hokage, Hiruzen could not allow that. Just like he should never have allowed anger from old wounds to fester and hate to bubble below the surface. He had already decided that he had taken enough from Naruto. The old leader took a deep breath and steeled his resolve.

"Konoha…" Began Hiruzen searchingly, as if unsure on how to word what he wanted to say. "Konoha took enough from you, Naruto. It's time it gives back. You are a ninja and from what I can see, you are shaping to be a brilliant one. But you are also human, Naruto, a fine young boy. You are allowed your emotions, I would never take that from you."

"But…"

"No, listen. I committed mistakes after mistakes when it comes to you Naruto. Old age, sorrow, fear; I don't know what it was and I won't search any excuse. I forgot the tenets of our philosophy and that makes me the worse scum."

"Jijie no!"

Quelling the boy's outburst with a raised hand, the Hokage continued, eyes locked with Naruto's. "If you're willing to give me a chance, I'd be most honored, my boy."

The two fell silent until a sob racked Naruto. Silently, the older man rose to sit closer to the blond boy who shuddered against him.

"It hurt so much Jijie. Holding back everything. Why?"

The Hokage sighed, his chest constricted by the weight of too many regrets. "I'm a foolish old man Naruto. The hat isn't for me anymore."

The blond breathed deeply to calm himself and seemed to contemplate something before he answered. "I'm sorry Jijie."

"What for?"

"I… I can't take it from you anymore. The hat. Not with how I feel. Not with the reasons I had."

The Hokage sighed discreetly before he chuckled. "You are years too early anyway."

Naruto could not help but smile, comfortably tucked against the flowing white robes of his grandfather. "I can still prank it out of you."

"I have no doubt on that. Please don't use your ANBU training to prank Konoha, Naruto."

The blond pressed a pensive index finger against his lips. "Hum? Why not? I know what you owe me, but they have no idea what I owe them…"

The Hokage shuddered and he exhaled a resigned sigh. "Please limit property damages to the minimum?"

Naruto smiled. "I'll see what I can do."

The boy and the old man fell into a comfortable silence for five more minutes before Naruto coughed.

"Say, Jijie?" The blond asked while bashfully scratching the back of his head.

"Yes."

"I, hum, I actually need your help."

"Oh?"

"You know the jutsu you owe me?"

* * *

Tiger and his teammates, alongside Owl, stood on the side of the "bowl", the room used for vertical walking, and watched as Naruto sat at the bottom of it. Suddenly, they all heard the blond recruit take a deep breath and hold it.

Tiger felt his own breath itch and catch in his throat. Beside him, Cat and Dog had stopped breathing, they had probably forgotten how to. Owl also had suspended her need for air momentarily.

The blond dived inside his own coils and focused. The Hokage's counsel had been beyond precious to him. After an explanation of the theory of yang-release and yin-release, the reality of yin-yang-release, and the reminder that Naruto's chakra was wholly unbalanced toward the yang element, the old man had simply opened the boy's eyes by scribbling an eon old symbol: the Dao circle.

"Yang does not exist without yin, Naruto, and the opposite is also true. Your yang chakra contains plenty of yin." The Hokage had told the blond.

"Where does that leave me?"

"Well, rather than trying to filter the yin chakra directly from the Gate of Wonder, why not take yang chakra and exploit what yin is already inside?"

"Alright but how…" The blond had then slapped his forehead. "Shadow clone?" He had asked the Hokage.

The old man had only smiled widely and nodded once with pride in his eyes.

It was obvious. If yang chakra breathed substance and life into form and yin created form from nothing, it was evident the shadow clone technique relied on both. Before filling it with substance, Naruto had to imagine a replica of himself. It was entirely yin based.

After that, it took the rest of the week for Naruto to get a feel of yin-chakra. He sculpted numerous little statues of clay by simply holding them, just like Owl had instructed but holding the cross-shaped hand-sign rather than the circular one.

Unorthodoxy at its finest but that was how Naruto liked to do things. He was a seal user, after all, unconventional solutions were at the roots of his thoughts process.

The second week had been simply the time required to forge the chakra needles of the Jyuuken to a satisfying level of control before Owl had authorized him to internalize the process entirely.

Having located his tenketsus, the blond molded chakra. The cross-shaped hand-sign had slowly become obsolete to him. If he had enough time, he could gather yang chakra without any help. Ever so slowly, the boy circulated the chakra in his coils, shaping it in a needle-like fashion right before each one of his three hundred and sixty-one tenketsus.

Agonizingly slow seconds passed, dropping like water from a leaky sink. The ANBUs were becoming blue from the lack of oxygen when suddenly, they were allowed to expand their lungs once again.

From Naruto, a maelstrom of chakra erupted all around his body. Owl staggered back and cried, shielding her eyes as the blond's tenketsus all opened at once and waves of life energy started to spill forth and roll around the teenager's frame. The air shimmered and the floor started to bend and heat up under the physical pressure of the manifested energy.

"Holy Flame." Tiger heard Dog swear next to him while, thanks to his peripheral vision, he could see Cat shake her head in disbelief. The man strained his eyes as he forced himself to look at the blond boy, the brightness of the chakra tornado hurting his retina.

Naruto was surrounded by a halo of chakra, whirling, twirling, and swirling around him in pale blue and snow white hues. The boy was looking at his own life energy dancing around him, fascinated by the show. And what a rare show it was indeed, as only someone possessing several times the chakra reserves of a ninjutsu specialist jonin could expel a chakra dense enough and in an amount large enough for it to be visible like that.

Some Hyuuga could do it for a special technique of theirs but for nary a second at most.

Suddenly, startled out of his trance by a cue known to him only, Naruto stood up and neared the slope of the "bowl". The mantle of chakra dispersed slowly as the boy closed his eyes and under his mask, Naruto's face scrunched up in intense concentration.

The breath of the entire ANBU team watching itched once again as, slowly but surely, the blond recruit started to climb the impossibly smooth, slippery slope on wobbly legs.

Tiger sighed a breath of relief and discreetly squeezed his right fist victory. Dragon would be pleased. Tiger himself was pleased, to be honest. It had taken the boy two and a half of the remaining three weeks but Naruto had done the impossible.

Tiger smiled behind the porcelain and mentally corrected himself. Naruto had done the unlikely, for impossible was not a word worthy of Naruto Uzumaki's dictionary. "Dattebayo," had, of course, added the blond to his declaration, all the while breaking protocol and earning a straight to chin and a mean hook to the left side.

The man smiled wider, unknown to all. The kid had gone places, from the clueless, dead-last genin he had been a little less than a month and a half ago. And he would not admit it to anyone under threat of painful death but Tiger was proud of his charge.

Next to him, Dog was less private and subtle in making her enthusiasm known as she hollered and whooped around like an excited teenager. Which she was. "Yeah! Fuckin' finally, we are going back on missions!"

Tiger's smile broke his face in two. It was true. Now capable of vertical walking and considering the boy's results to the evaluations in the various subjects that were taught to him, which were all more than sufficient, Naruto was ready to take another step in his ANBU career.

It was time for the blond to receive the mask of the initiate.

Tiger was broken off from those thoughts when Naruto suddenly staggered as if hit. The boy turned toward the assembled ANBU and they all could see his blue eyes shine with a smile.

"I did it."

The lone male ANBU had barely the time to react when the boy crumbled on himself and slid down the slope. All four ANBUs present instantly surrounded the downed form of the young teenager.

"What happened?" asked Cat, the barest trace of worry in her tone.

Dog was already crouched near the boy, her hands glowing a soft blue-green color as special, medicinal chakra suffused them while she diagnosed what the recruit was suffering from. It was Owl who answered first.

"Chakra exhaustion, sergeant. He pulsed out way too much, look at the floor."

And Tiger looked and he saw that the floor was a mess indeed. Naruto's chakra had burned through the tiles, carving them as if a cat with claws made of diamond had decided to scratch them. The floor was bent, cut, and melted. The man could not help but sigh. While it was impressive -if unsurprising- for Naruto to possess that much chakra and so potent at that, this would cost a fortune to repair.

"Alright, Dog and Owl, you take him to the infirmary and you monitor him. Cat, you're with me and we will see Dragon. Move."

As Dog and Owl hauled the blond's body between them, his arms around their shoulder, his feet dragging on the ground, Tiger and Cat left quickly. They had a report to make. The two ANBU walked for a few minutes in the labyrinth that were the endless, white, featureless corridors of the Central Barracks until they reached the office of the general. Tiger rasped his knuckles against the reinforced door and waited for the signal.

"Come in," ordered Dragon's voice, muffled by the panel.

"Tiger three reporting, in the company of Cat five."

The general took a few moments to orderly stack some papers he was reading in a folder before turning his focus to the two ANBUs standing at attention. "Go ahead," answered Dragon in his monotone.

"Recruit Uzumaki has successfully applied the solution and can now perform vertical walking sir," began Tiger, excitement piercing in his voice in a rare occurrence of his control slipping slightly. "With the two days left to properly work on it, he will be ready."

Dragon propped himself up in his chair and laced his fingers in front of him. "Good." The general answered. "Good," he repeated with something like mirth somewhere in the confine of his monotone. "No. Excellent even." The man concluded while exhaling a deep breath.

It had not been by design that Dragon had pushed Naruto against the wall. He had promised the boy no preferential treatment and the boy had gotten none. Just like any recruit, he had been trained from the ground and up in all disciplines necessary for a ninja. The chakra problem was not something Dragon had foreseen and its solution even less.

The general was relieved that the Uzumaki had made the cut and challenged any and all expectations. Dragon had not lied when he had told Naruto he believed in him. Not entirely at least but sometimes, a little white lie for encouragement was better than to see a promising recruit fail.

"I want details." The general eventually said.

"Hai, general." Tiger answered before he took a deep breath, in preparation of the story he was going to recount. "The first part of the solution entailed teaching recruit Uzumaki the location of his own tenketsus. Thanks to his habit of meditating, it was rather easy for the boy to map his chakra circulatory system."

* * *

Naruto awoke to the sound of water dripping into more water. Plick, plock, plick, plock. It was a light, vaguely annoying pitter-patter that had no business existing. Something was leaking somewhere nearby and it made Naruto growl: some people had no idea how expensive a water bill was. Plick, plock, plick, plock. The noise finally getting on his nerve, the blond opened his eyes.

He knew immediately that there was a problem. He also knew where he was. He had carefully avoided coming here.

The blond rubbed his eyes tiredly as a wave of exhaustion crashed onto him. It took a minute to understand its origin. He had pushed open all his tenketsus at once, as he had practiced for the last two weeks or so. Rather than controlling the wild flow, Naruto, by a strange instinct, had allowed its freedom. His chakra, after being confined all those years inside his body, was yearning for release and the boy had let it go.

Now though, he was probably suffering from chakra exhaustion but he was not too worried. It was not the first time it had happened to him during a month of training and he had always recuperated quickly.

The current problem was that he had never found himself so deep. The first time chakra exhaustion had hit Naruto, the boy had found himself floating in shallow, slowly coursing waters, with above him, a night sky. He had recognized in the stars the various parts of his body: his beating heart, his sleeping brain, and so on.

The second time, he had allowed himself to go with the gentle flow of his nearly dried up chakra. It was the reason he knew he would be fine. It was not chakra exhaustion if he could still feel chakra coursing through him, right?

It had been a strange experience to follow the current of his depleted life energy. Rather than the breakneck ride he was used to, it was a gentle glide. Thanks to the flow being tame, the blond could hear his own body work and beat. His heart was a solid, pristine pump, his muscles were, at the time, protesting like overburdened cables while healing and his bones were creaking in protest of the treatment they had received.

The third time had been when he had reached "the Pit". Naruto knew where it was. Anchored by eight prongs to the eight tenketsus around his stomach was a hole darker than black, bleeding into his coils a reddish chakra. It was a strange horizon of nothing beyond which Naruto did not dare venture. For the blond knew that the orb of Void was the prison for a beast far too dangerous to contact.

The "Pit" was the seal and Naruto had no wish to see what was inside. Was he afraid? Yes, and rightly so in his opinion. The Kyuubi was a monster that had brought Konoha to its knees in a matter of minutes. Was he ashamed of his fears? Absolutely not. Naruto Uzumaki feared no man but a demon made of chakra was another thing entirely.

So it was dismay the blond was feeling when he awoke where he was. Slowly, the boy stood to stand knee-deep into the water. It had a red hue to it as if untold, sickening amounts of blood had mixed in it. Above and around him, there was not the usual sky of his body but the concrete walls and ceiling of a dungeon. Naruto was standing into a corridor that was slightly curving to the left. He could not tell which way was behind and which lead to the monster inside his guts.

Warily, the blond took a step forward. He had to find his way out. He just hoped the Kyuubi was further caged. If the monster somehow roamed in the corridor, it would be the boy's end.

For what felt like an hour, Naruto strolled along the ever-curving hallway, unease making him sweat and fear griping at his heart, making breathing difficult. The air was damp yet warm, the combination was suffocating. The dungeon basked in an unnatural light, a sickly yellowish glow that seemed to radiate from the walls. The dungeon itself had a decrepit feel to it: Naruto could see cracks in the walls and places where the layer coating the walls had come completely off, revealing grey, hard concrete.

The blond hoped it was not as many signs that his seal was slowly failing. He had a little talent in fuinjutsu but when it came to the seal keeping the Kyuubi at bay, it was limited to acknowledging it was way beyond him for now.

Lost in his thoughts, Naruto noticed too late he had entered a seemingly endless room, cut in half by countless thick pillars of anthracite steal. A ridiculously thin and little piece of paper was hanging on the bars, right ahead of the blond boy. On it, the word "seal" was inscribed in dark red that evoked dried blood. The kanji had been painted with incredible strength and authority and for a second, Naruto marveled at the penmanship before his situation came back to him full force.

"Flame almighty," whispered the boy as all colors left his face when he understood he had taken the wrong path. He had walked down the wrong direction and he could only hope. He could only hope he had not disturbed the beast's slumber. Slowly, and as silently as he could, Naruto recoiled.

A deep, rumbling sound froze the boy in his tracks. First came the growl. Naruto thought the structure of the dungeon itself was caving in. It was like two enormous cinderblocks were grinding against each other, like the trunk of an old tree had decided to split under some gigantic pressure, like reality was tearing apart as its seams were engulfed by flames.

Then, a rush of wind lifted the golden hair of the boy as two bellows fit for a giant's forge emptied themselves of the air they contained. It was hot and vibrating with the sound of embers cracking and rocks splitting.

The boy staggered and fell and it was then his heart stopped and his mind derailed.

One eye opened. And for Naruto, the world spasmed and collapsed around it, leaving only it as the sole possible thing in existence. Naruto and the Eye. It was all that was and all that would ever be.

One lone, all-seeing orb of fire and darkness speared through Naruto and kept him immobile, rooted in place. The slitted iris was blacker than the deepest void and was surrounded by flowing flames. It was red, golden, and black. It was beautiful. It was terrifying. It was humbling. It was the end.

The boy felt his head split open as if struck by an axe when a howling wind blasted through his mind and obliterated his thoughts. All was gone; the fear, the awe, the shock. Only lasted one primal instinct; the urge to disappear, the urge to escape, to escape the Eye, to bow to it. An ageless voice, heavy with primordial might and laced with dominance, spoke directly inside the boy's head, unraveling the last shred of his consciousness.

"I see you."

* * *

Naruto woke up with a start and a horrified shout gargling at the back of his throat. His vision blurry and his head heavy, he could only feel a hand pushing him back down on the bed he was apparently laying in. The boy's throat, mouth, and lips were dry and he had the feeling he had just stood too close to a sand storm.

"Recruit? Recruit, do you hear me?"

Groggily, the boy turned toward the voice and strained his ears. It was Dog and the ANBU was definitely speaking under water for some strange reason.

"What happened?" A second person asked. Owl, surmised Naruto. She was the operative he had less heard speak. She was also talking with a bucket flipped on her head.

"Wh-what?" The blond stammered, slowly emerging from the dense fog obscuring his mind.

"Recruit, do you hear me?" The voice of Dog rung clear in Naruto's ears and the boy cringed at the volume. "Are you feeling alright?"

Naruto felt his breath catch in his throat and his heartbeat accelerate. There was something wrong, something urgent that he had to tell them immediately if the beads of dread rolling off his spine like sticky sweat were any indication. But he could not remember what. Why was he in this bed in the first place?

"What happened… To me?"

Dog took a glass of water and helped the boy drink. Naruto distractedly realized he was not wearing his mask but his brain did not register it as a problem.

"Chakra exhaustion, you dropped like a rock. You're in the hospital right now," explained Dog while waving her hand, impatience in her voice until it morphed to something else.

Worry?

"Now what happened? You were tossing around like mad and you woke up like you had seen death."

Naruto threw the young ANBU a glassy look before his face scrunched in the picture of concentration.

"Don't know." The blond answered after a few seconds.

Behind Dog's mask, he could see her eyes hold the tale tell shift of doubt and worry. The boy sighed.

"It's okay Dog, really. Some bad dream probably. Thanks." Naruto smiled widely, blinding his two companions. "You too Owl."

"Pff you're welcome." Dog said while lightly punching the blond boy on his shoulder.

"No problem Recruit," Owl added before a pensive finger came to support her chin as she looked slightly up. "It's nothing official but I guess it's not "recruit" anymore though."

Naruto felt his blood congeal in his veins and his chest cave in.

"Stop messing around Owl." Dog cut in suddenly. "If it's not "recruit" anymore, it's because it's "initiate" now!"

The boy felt air return to his lungs and he greedily breathed in while a wide, blinding smile, blossomed on his lips. He was one step closer to his family.

* * *

**A/N: I own nothing but I do collect reviews. Send one my way? Especially to tell me what you all thought of that. Narratively speaking, this chapter is kind of ninety-degree turn. From then on, basic training is over and the story enters a new age. Also, I would like to cut back the word count to less than 5,000 but I can't. Send help (or don't if you like long chapters).  
**

**A/N 2: a chasen is a special, hand-held kitchen whip made of bamboo to "bake" traditional green tea. If you are good enough and the water is not too hot, you create a foamy beverage. Kinda like beer but it's tea. And it's green also.**


	11. Chapter 11 Lull

**AN: Hello all. Thanks to Lord Kyuubi for proofreading this. He did a good job and you should not find too many mistakes in here as a result. Lord Kyuubi, feel free to leave a review flaunting your awesomeness.**

**I hope you enjoy. I sure did, even if I don't own anything.**

* * *

If Naruto was not seeing it with his own eyes and holding it with his own hands, he would not have believed it. Sure, he had been teased good-naturedly by Dog and Owl about it and Owl had done him an awful scare but in his mind, it had been just that: teasing. But here it was; still formless, still blank, save for one large mark across the left eye painted in the rich blood red of the third company.

The mask of an initiate. His mask. The proof he had done well. The acknowledgment of his efforts. The mark he could finally perform vertical walking.

What a pain it had been.

"It's going to be an even greater pain in the ass for you, now that we'll go on real missions." Tiger had warned him. The man had tried to dampen the blond's enthusiasm, he had attempted to limit the unbridled joy mounting in the boy's chest.

Naruto did not even feel the smile that split his face and shone like a second sun. He did not care for Tiger's warnings. He knew his formation was not complete and, truthfully, would it ever be? The Sandaime was called the Professor not because he knew everything but because even at past sixty years old, he kept learning. The blond was impatient to tackle new things. He felt his foundations were stronger than they ever had been and he was ready to build upon them.

The blue-eyed boy sighed contentedly and rolled back on the narrow bed he was occupying for six weeks now. He would be here for a bit more time. Just a bit more time and then he would join the family, he would enter ANBU. Naruto trained his eyes on his clock and read quarter-to-midnight. It was high time to sleep. Initiate or not, he would still wake up at four in the morning tomorrow to run the Warmer. That would not change in a long time, or so Tiger had informed him.

Naruto brought his legs, still dangling from the side of his bed, back on the mattress and put his cover on his feet. It was light and it was always relatively warm inside the underground compound. With a wide, jaw-unhinging yawn, the boy closed his eyes and fell asleep almost immediately.

The boy was startled awake seconds before his steadfast alarm rung in his ears. With a practiced motion, Naruto cut off the blaring sound and fiddled with the mechanism to reset the clock before he suspended his action. If he was going on a mission, he would not need it. The blond thought for a second as he scratched the sleep out of his blue eyes; he would need to get used to setting his alarm up before sleeping.

His resolution made, the boy stood up and trotted to his bathroom for his morning grooming. To say that a month and a half before, he was plagued with the bad habit of oversleeping. ANBU had trained things in but it had also beaten things out. Naruto had never slept so little yet he had never felt so good. After a short shower, the blond put on his new mask and darted to a strangely deserted mess.

"Hello, Buffalo-san."

"Hey Blondie. All good?"

The teen beamed a smile no one would ever see and gave the ANBU behind the counter a thumb up while his other hand was pointing at the red mark of his mask.

"Hell yeah!" Naruto answered excitedly, his voice cracking slightly from the enthusiasm.

The buffalo-masked ANBU huffed in a strange staccato, something Naruto had come to learn was the man's way of laughing. "Congrats, Initiate. Make the corps proud."

"Thanks, Buffalo-san, I'll do my bestest, 'ttebayo." Naruto grinned as he took the tray given by the man. "How is it going for you today?"

"Pretty slow day kid. We have a lot of people away."

The blond's eyes widened slightly in both amazement and impatience. "I hope I'll join whatever they are doing." He muttered hopefully.

The host ANBU grunted. "Don't go too fast looking for action, Blondie. You'll learn to work with your team before you go slit throats and take names," chastised the man slightly. "The first rule of ANBU, you never go and wish for trouble, that jinx's everything. Got me, initiate?"

"Hai, Buffalo-san."

"We are ninjas, not adventurers, Blondie." The older man reminded the boy, his voice surprisingly melancholic. "Don't let my advice go to waste."

Naruto smiled behind his mask.

"I'd never forgive you for pestering me so much if you go die in the first ditch you find."

The boy's smile crashed. "Oy!" He cried indignantly. "I'm not that bad!"

"Sure, sure." Buffalo waved the boy off before he poked him above the heart and on the forehead in a swift motion too quick for Naruto to follow. "Remember, be there, always. Don't lose your head to some fantasy or you'll lose it for real."

"Hai, Buffalo-san, thanks."

"Now go eat your chow," drawled the tall man, "com'on, shush!"

Naruto bowed, his tray still in his hands, and darted to a table where, after performing his partial transformation trick over his head, he started wolfing down his food. He frowned slightly when he could not feel the chocolate in his porridge before the taste of various berries exploded in his mouth. The boy smiled before his thoughts diverted to the man behind the counter.

Buffalo was quite an old ninja who had been serving in ANBU for years. He had been the captain of the third company before a mission had taken his leg during the Third War. He had decided to stay in service of the corps he had already given his life to, this time as a cook. He was greatly respected and even wore three stylized chrysanthemums of ivory, as a reminder of his past rank. A gift from the entire third company and a break in the rules Dragon tolerated.

The man behind the counter had been reluctant to open up to Naruto but the hidden smiles of the blond boy and his enthusiasm had eventually cracked the shell. Buffalo was a treasure trove of practical advice and war stories. The man had seen two wars and had led an entire troop of black ops operatives through one.

Many knew of the tragedy of the Kannabi Bridge, where Minato Namikaze's team lost one of their members for destroying the vital piece of architecture.

No one remembered that it was the third company who tracked the soldiers from Iwa beyond the ruined bridge and sent the corpses diced up back to Earth Country and their heads to Konoha to be mounted on spikes.

Everyone knew of the future Yondaime Hokage slaughtering the entirety of an Earth Country's battalion in a flash, saving the remnant of two General Forces Konoha companies.

Few remembered that said battalion had sortied out of despair, its numbers greatly reduced due to the guerilla war that a hundred ANBU of the Leaf had fought against them. The Iwa-nin had been cut from any and all supplies, starved, sabotaged, and assassinated. All for weeks in a row. The actions of the third company had made sure Iwa's main assault on Fire Country had collapsed and had earned them the nickname, "Hounds of Kusa." Less than twenty Leaf shinobi had gotten out of the dreadful jungle but the rest was History.

And Buffalo had been their captain, right until the end, even when a paper bomb had robbed him of one of his legs. Even when ninja wire had severed his right hand. Even when shrapnel had been blasted inside his entire right side. The man had endured and pushed through, all to lead his comrades until the end. He was a true hardened veteran. One a young recruit like Naruto had better listen to as each of the older man's stories held a lesson.

Naruto chewed on his porridge and drank his green goo in silence, reminiscing about the tales he had convinced Buffalo to tell him. The old man kept saying ANBU did not wish for excitement as ANBU life was exciting enough, but the blond had difficulty believing his own career would be even half as incredible.

He would need a war for that and the boy was not wishing for one anytime soon. Buffalo's tales might have been fascinating, but the older man did not hide the fact war was a gruesome business.

A few minutes later, the blond rose from his seat, deposited the tray back on the counter and gave his empty canteen to Buffalo, which the man gladly filled.

"Thanks, Buffalo-san."

"You welcome Blondie. Remember," The man answered, pointing to his own heart and his forehead. "Be there."

Naruto nodded and darted away. He had his new team to join.

The three usual ANBU were waiting for him at the start of the Warmer, their rendezvous point. Cat was examining the sharpness of her blade, Dog her fingers, and Tiger was standing straight, the perfect picture of bored professionalism.

"Hello!" The blond greeted with enthusiasm, making all three ANBU nod in acknowledgment of his presence."Hello, Initiate."

Naruto positively beamed and he did not care one bit it was hidden behind the blank face of a porcelain mask. He was pretty certain his pride and joy were radiating with enough power that the other three could feel it on their skin anyway.

"Your basic training is considered enough but it's far from over. Basic training is never over. A genin with good foundations can topple a Kage with shaky ones. The reason it never happens is that no Kage has shaky basics. Understood?" Tiger asked in a threatening variation of his monotone.

"Hai, sensei!"

"Good. Now that we whipped you in shape, we can start to expand," the man started again. "Dog will teach you tracking, field emergency, and will keep working on chakra control. Cat will keep working on kenjutsu but you'll add shurikenjutsu to that. I will still drill taijutsu and physical conditioning in general but we will also start on your ninjutsu. We will all work with you on sign language and planning. Questions?" The male ANBU delivered in unchanging voice.

"What about missions?"

"We will do all that during our missions. Today, you will leave a clone to prepare your pack while you run the Warmer one last time before we go. Start!"

Naruto saluted. "Hai, sergeant." And with a quick hand-sign, a shout of "shadow clone no jutsu", and a puff of smoke, a replica of Naruto stood next to the original.

"Pack for a standard, month-long outing. Dog will lead you to the armory and explain it to you."

The Dog masked ANBU and the clone departed, leaving Naruto with Cat and Tiger. Both operators looked intently at the blond boy as he started a quick warm-up routine. A few minutes later, the blond sat in a lotus position and focused on the inner flow of his chakra.

Since his breakthrough and the work on vertical walking, the maelstrom of his life energy had become much more focused. It was still wild and chaotic but there was a direction to the unstoppable rush now, some kind of general idea of where it was going. It was not simply a chaotic, savage mass of energy anymore. Now it was a chaotic, reluctant mass of energy and it made harnessing it much easier.

Naruto doubted it would ever be a calm river and frankly he was not sure he wanted that. It would be too boring, he had definitely too much fun riding the foaming waterfall crashing in his coils, chakra control be damned. It took a minute for the blond to prepare the three hundred and sixty-one switches needed to open his tenketsus. The technique was not perfect yet and the blond was sure he could further refine it.

Chakra blasted outward as Naruto opened the vents of his circulatory coils. The blond quickly cut the flow in order not to fall prey to exhaustion again and stood up at attention. He felt a strange, if not unwelcome, surge of pride and eagerness when Tiger nodded.

"Ready to go, sergeant."

"Good, run."

Dutifully, the blond started his trek up the Warmer, followed for the first time by Tiger and Cat, much to his pleasant surprise.

* * *

A little less than an hour later, Naruto emerged from the Warmer in the dense forest covering the heights around Konoha. Giving him his time, Tiger nodded.

"Well done, Initiate." The ANBU complimented monotonously. "You worked hard, especially during those last three weeks. Your average speed is slightly above twenty kilometers per hour, without active chakra use."

Naruto knew by now that the dead inflection was so his head did not get too large with smugness. The praise was true but the lack of enthusiasm was a reminder that he could do better and that some were better than him. It was to enforce humility. The boy nodded and contained the joy he felt.

"As a reward, we will take the shortcut in order to come back," Tiger continued.

Naruto's face contorted into a grimace when his brain registered what his superior had just said. The blond could feel mirth dance around the man like an aura. "Wait… There is a shortcut?"

A minute after, Naruto, Tiger, and Cat were in an electronically powered elevator, the entrance of which was dissimulated right next to the exit of the Warmer. The blond was hating his instructor with a passion right now. The ridiculous music playing in a loop they were forced to listen was not helping matters.

"Sensei, why-"

"Endurance training, Initiate."

Naruto fell silent. Of course, endurance training it was. His teachers certainly were not sadistic at all after all. The blond mumbled some choice curse words under his breath until a shudder of dread racked his body right before he felt agile fingers snatch his ear and twist it.

"You will watch your language around me, young man," threatened Cat convincingly.

Naruto grimaced through the painful sensation and precipitately nodded. "H-hai Cat-sensei."

The elevator took the trio down to ground level in a matter of a few minutes. Naruto had ceased his grumbling about his slave-driving teachers but not without firmly promising himself he would introduce Tiger's mask to some orange paint. After another minute of walking down a straight, boring hallway, they found themselves back at the start of the Warmer, where Dog was waiting with Naruto's replica.

"Good," stated Tiger. "Initiate, come with me. You are due a haircut."

For a second Naruto nodded reflexively before his eyes widened at what his sergeant had just said. "Wait… What?"

Another few minutes later and Naruto had had his hair cut short in the infirmary. His golden, curly bangs decimated. An efficient, if tasteless, military buzz cut had replaced his flamboyant former hairdo.

"Was that really necessary?" The boy whined. There was some kind of smug satisfaction in the look Tiger and Cat were giving him, Naruto just knew it.

"Do you know anyone in the village with blond hair like yours?" Tiger retorted in his monotone. "If you are out with your blond hair floating behind you, you might as well leave the mask off."

"The guys at the Mission Desk will suspect something."

"You'll pretend you were in need of a change of style. Besides, you can pull off a henge perfectly anyway."

Naruto glared with mock heat at his superior before he sighed. "Alright, let's go for the change of style." The boy fell silent for a second before speaking again. "People will see my hair anyway."

"No, they won't. You thought the mask was the entirety of our armor?"

A few minutes later, after a shower, a new set of clean clothes, and a clone sent to the Desk with a note, Naruto was playing with various armor parts in the armory.

"So it really wasn't," wondered the blond aloud as he dressed in his full, custom made, ANBU suit, which included a balaclava -to absorb sweat, allow air to flow, provide protect against poisonous gas. Dog had joked that it even made coffee. It was made of a silk-like textile and covered his hair entirely. On top was a light tactical helmet built in the same fashion as the standard armor: several packed layers of technical fibers reinforced with a tight meshing of ninja wire.

Ninja wire was not used only to capture an enemy or set a trap. In fact, its exceptional mechanical properties and its relative resilience made it perfect for internal lacing of ninja armor and as such, it was the main market for ninja wire.

Fully decked in the standard ANBU combat attire, Naruto observed himself and had to admit that, covered as he was from head to toe, he was unrecognizable.

"Hmm Sensei?"

"Yes, Initiate?"

"If our entire armor is grey and night blue, why is our mask clean white?"

"Psychological shock."

Incredulous, Naruto had to ask. "Does that actually work?"

"It's a killer on civilians and inexperienced ninjas." Tiger fastened some pouch to his belt before adding, "especially when there are fleshy bits on it."

The blond pictured the mask of his instructor splattered in blood and had to admit it would make for a rather dreadful sight. It was already fearsome as it was, with the blood red markings. He was brought back to the present when Tiger extended his hand, grasping something in it.

"This," explained the instructor, "is a breathing capsule, in case we are under gas attack. It goes in front of your mouth, in the rounded part of the mask. You bite into it if I give the order."

The blond marveled for a moment at the piece of technology he was provided with just as his mind unhelpfully provided that there was a reason ANBU masks weren't flat. No matter the animal, they all had a cavity around the mouth and the small re-breather must be the reason why. Naruto affixed the small black machine inside his mask.

"It's based on a rather complex chemical process. If it breaks, fails, and starts leaking, you throw it away quick. You'll have better chance to survive poisonous gas than a whiff of that cocktail," informed Dog from the sideline.

Naruto shuddered. "If it's that dangerous-"

"'Cause it very rarely breaks the wrong way and we have yet to find a better way to fight Suna and Ame's methods." The older girl cut the blond.

"They absolutely love poison in all its forms." Cat supplied.

Every ANBU was fully equipped with combat fatigues, armor plates, helmets, pouches, and a chokuto sheathed on their back. They made for rather impressive, ghostly figures. Living oaths of pain and promises of death.

Eventually, Tiger approached Naruto with the final piece of the blond's equipment. The man extended his hand, clasping a long, flowing service cloak. The boy smiled behind his mask.

He knew the gear did not make the ninja but if with all that he wasn't an ANBU… he did not know what would make him one. Naruto eagerly draped himself in the cloak. It had long sleeves, flowed until below the knee, and sported a large hood to further dissimulate him. The color was some sort of dark, badly defined earthy brown.

"Pulse chakra inside the cloak," ordered Tiger.

Not questioning his officer, Naruto pushed some of his life energy into the mantle and watched with fascination as some parts of the cloak changed color, taking on a greenish hue.

"Whoah."

"Advanced cloaking technology kid. Heh. Get it? 'Cause it's a cloa-" Dog quipped from the side before Cat elbowed her, keeping the teenager from achieving her sorry attempt at humor.

"There are subtleties to it, we will teach you while en route. It requires better chakra control than you currently have." Tiger informed before he gazed intently at the initiate from head to toe. "You have everything?"

"Hai, sergeant." Naruto saluted. "What is the mission?"

* * *

The mission, as it turned out, was what was called a "border sweep" in ANBU's jargon, between Grass and Earth Country to be exact. It had nothing to do with actually patrolling the border. Konoha had not nearly enough ninjas to keep the large, sprawling frontiers of Fire Country under perpetual watch and such a mission was given to soldiers paid by the Daimyo.

An ANBU border sweep was in all effects an illegal incursion inside the territory of another country to have a look at their defenses.

It was intelligence gathering, in fewer words. As ANBU soldiers did not bear the leaf insignia, it was a full black-op that Konoha would disavow if they were to be caught. It was the game of the Great Five to prod like this at each other's defense and if a few ninjas were lost for it, well, it was life.

A border sweep had never sparked a war, seeing as it was an obvious breach of all treaties concerning the border management between the Great Five that no Hidden Village would admit to committing.

Teams sent on such missions were rarely caught anyway. The ground to cover for capture was simply too large and, given one had to send ninjas to intercept ninjas, no Hidden Village had enough competent manpower to simply set up a trap. It was attempted once in a while but it seldom yielded any results. Even rarer were the situations where two teams from hostile countries met each other; given the swathes of land to cover and the fact those missions were obviously not scheduled in a way that made them predictable, the probabilities weren't even qualified as "low" anymore but as "non zero".

It would make for a relatively boring mission and the ideal ground to test Naruto's newly gained endurance and speed in the real world, as well as work out the limit of his stealth abilities in the presence of hostiles in an unknown environment. It would also allow the team to work out team formations and strategies in the wild.

Naruto had a bit of practice in the training field but it did not compare to the real deal.

Tiger and Cat explained all that to the blond as the team of four made their way out of the underground compound. Konoha was still asleep when they exited the barracks by the cliff's secret entrance. The sun wasn't exactly there either yet, the yellow star timidly peeking above the Hokage Monument like a shy child.

"Alright, we have one more stop before we step out the doors," Tiger informed the three who nodded before Dog took point.

As they entered Konoha proper, Naruto felt something prickle at the limit of his awareness. It was like a whisper he could not find the origin of, like an itch he could not scratch. The blond ignored it at first and focused on silently following his three senseis -his teammates now- through the village's streets. After a five minutes walk, they were standing in front of a large, pillar-like stone in a vast meadow. Carved into the rough surface of the obelisk were two schematic fangs with a reversed triangle on top: the insignia of the Inuzuka clan.

Dog simply whistled, the tremolo escaping her lips going progressively higher and higher in pitch as seconds passed. Naruto frowned then grimaced when his ears continued to pick up what had become a screeching sound to him. The blond hurriedly clasped his hand around his ears and whispered agitatedly.

"Ow! What are you doing sensei?"

His exclamation, though spoken in a low voice, caught the attention of two of his teachers.

"You can hear Dog's ultrasonic whistle?" Tiger asked, mild interest piercing in his voice.

One pinkie in each ear, Naruto grimaced under his mask. "The screeching? Yeah and it hurts. You can't?"

Whatever he had said made Dog turn to face him. "You can hear that? That makes your hearing as good as an Inuzuka's!"

The blond shrugged. He had always had good senses, it had helped tremendously when setting up and going through his pranks. His fingers actively rubbing the inside of his ears, the boy looked at the girl. "Thanks, I guess?"

"A month and a half later and we are still…" Tiger mumbled something before he shook his head. "Whatever. What you heard was Dog calling her companions."

"Companions?"

As soon as the blond said that, he could hear the barking of several dogs -three in his estimation- carrying over the meadow. A minute later and three wolfish dogs, all looking the same to him with dark grey fur on top and a white underbelly, came barrelling into Dog who rolled with the animals in a bundle, exchanging yips of joy with them. Well, at least now, Naruto knew the older teenage girl was an Inuzuka without a doubt. After playing for a minute. Dog righted herself and turned to Naruto.

"Alright, Initiate, meet the Haimura brothers. This is Hai." She said, pointing to a dog to her left. "This is Mu." She continued, patting the dog in front of her. "And this is La." She finished, scratching the last dog's chin. Suddenly, the blond could feel all four dogs giving him a sharp glare and the girl spoke again. "They are very intelligent, more clever than some human I've met. So do not insult or underestimate them. They can understand you perfectly and even if they cannot talk, they can communicate. Capishe?"

Naruto swallowed hard and gave his youngest teacher a salute. "Hai sensei."

"Good. Now boys, go introduce yourself."

At this order, the blond was immediately dogpiled, quite literally, by the trio of hunting hounds. Each dog carefully registered Naruto's scent and the blond subconsciously started doing the same. All three hounds growled low when their nose neared the boy's stomach but Dog calmed them with a caress on the head. Some ministrations from Naruto himself sealed the alliance. Tiger allowed the newly introduced teammates to play for a few seconds before he cleared his throat to catch everyone's attention.

"The Haimura trio are as much your teammates as we are. They fight for us, we fight for them. We all fight for each other. Clear, Initiate?"

From the ground in between the towering hounds, Naruto nodded. "Hai, sensei."

"Good. We are ready to depart then. Let's get going."

A few minutes later, the group was outside the city. They had not left by the main gate of course; as a rule of thumb, ANBU missions did not exist, so ANBU were very rarely seen officially leaving the village.

It was a quiet exit. Naruto did not bounce around in excitement; that had been beaten out of him by Tiger, so the blond settled for a shudder of impatience. It would be the first time away from Konoha after all, it was still something of note. As for the rest, it was not their first rodeo and it would not be their last.

* * *

Hiruzen Sarutobi was torn; he did not know whether today was a good day or not. A few days ago, he had started to mend his relationship with his surrogate grandson and that had been a source of joy. Today though, the Hokage knew that this aforementioned grandson would partake in his first ANBU mission. A "border sweep" to be exact: he had threatened Dragon with a fate worse than death if Naruto was sent on anything other than an easy assignment for his first outing.

As no ANBU mission could rightly be considered "easy", the border sweep had been selected, given that chances of hostile encounters were the lowest during those types of dispatch. It would still greatly tax Naruto physically and put him to the test but that was something Hiruzen was confident the boy could handle.

That was the second reason the old Sarutobi felt torn. He still did not know how he felt about Naruto being trained in ANBU. He had ignored it for a month and a half as no immediate dangers lay in wait for Naruto and more pressing concerns had come knocking on Hiruzen's office door. But now, the boy had donned his initate mask, and that meant he was considered mission-ready. It was well deserved according to Dragon, after a gruesome month and a half of training that would have sent lesser ninjas packing for home. The boy had surmounted the problem of his blocked tenketsus and had refined many of his shaky skills into good foundations.

Hiruzen felt a pride he knew he had little to no right to feel but was terribly worried all in all. As Naruto's grandfather, it was his right.

He knew as well that he was not allowed to interfere with the boy's life and career choices. It was the agreement between the Hokage and his ninja, be they from a clan or not: they served Konoha, obeyed the Kage, but their career path was theirs to decide. Naruto had volunteered and that made him untouchable if not for a very long legal procedure that Hiruzen absolutely refused to consider. It would raise one major point he had fought against for the entirety of his two tenures as Hokage and he would not change now.

But by refusing to call the boy a jinchuriki, by refusing to consider Naruto as a weapon, property of Konoha under the direct rule of its Hokage, Hiruzen was left without alternatives to pull his grandson out of ANBU. Especially considering the blond wasn't anywhere crazy or unstable yet. The ANBU corps was protected by a law made by the Nidaime and it was difficult, even for a Hokage, to modify it.

Naruto had been invited and had volunteered his services. Now it was up to the corps to deal with the boy.

Hiruzen sighed. It was truly out of his hands by now, as given the time, Naruto and his team were out of the village by now. The Hokage straightened himself and prepared for his day. He had a few meetings, including one with the civilian advisers. Those were terribly dry and dreary and mainly consisted of people whining for more money. The Academy needed more money, the hospital needed more money, the chunin wanted a raise, the workers at the power plant did too, and there was only so much in Konoha's treasury.

Because raising taxes was obviously out. "More public services and fewer taxes please." The logical contradiction made Hiruzen want to slap some sense into the advisors but that would not do. They were useful in their own right, helping him in managing the more civilian side of Konoha's affairs and actually providing him once in a while with a wise suggestion.

Unfortunately, while they displayed flashes of competence, most were also bickering fools who spent an unreasonable amount of time trying to curry favors from him. Relentlessly trying, to get some sort of greater political footing within the village.

And by the Flame, they would never succeed, Hiruzen continuously saw to that, much like his predecessors. Konoha was a shinobi village and it was ruled by its Hokage and the nine founding clans Not by some ambitious, power-hungry civilians. Konoha was a village of warriors and its rulers were warriors, period.

In all honesty, the founding clans were already enough of a pain in his bottom to deal with, there was no need to add anything to the fire.

With another sigh, the Hokage prepared himself a pipe. It would be his first smoke of the day, one of the many that would eventually lead to some horrible, agonizingly slow, sickness induced downfall, as Tsunade had threatened him numerous times.

Damned, thinking about dreary meetings had made him all depressed! Hiruzen promptly lit his pipe and took two puffs out of it with a satisfied smile soon flourishing on his lips. Good, he was now ready for his first appointment. He was curious about what news Iruka would bring him. The teacher's investigation was slow going but it had yielded some interesting elements yet, with the discreet help of T&I and a special authorization granted by Hiruzen himself.

The scarred chunin had been able to determine the general modus operandi. Many students had been actively sabotaged, their result falsified one way or another, if a bit too tellingly, by an unidentified third party. Iruka was sure that no teachers had been actively involved in the modifications. They had however been asked to turn a blind eye to any inconsistencies they could find in their students' results.

The trail stopped with a mysterious, apparently official looking assignment all incriminated teachers had apparently received years ago yet could not find again.

It reeked but it in a weird way, if Hiruzen had to be honest. Firstly, the falsification of the students' work had been amateurish. Secondly, Iruka and a few other teachers had never received the orders, which was a flaw. If Iruka had decided to correct a few tests he wasn't supposed to, the plan could have been uncovered. It was as if whoever was behind everything had wanted the operation to be discovered. At the same time, the letters had all disappeared, the involved teachers having probably destroyed them even if those who had been interrogated by T&I assured they had no recollection of ever doing so.

It meant their best lead was dead, given that the conveniently clumsy saboteur would not strike before classes started again. If he was even going to continue his job. There was no reason for the infiltrator to stop unless he'd somehow caught wind of the secret investigation, but apparently, some secrets were not guarded well enough if Konoha could be infiltrated like that. Which meant the culprit possibly already knew that his operation was endangered.

Which opened a third point. Whoever the enemy was: he had a man inside the place, was an ancient Konoha shinobi with a relatively high-level clearance, or had a way to buy or steal a high-level clearance code. There was absolutely no way to forge a mission order, various security procedures made sure of that. If the teachers had received fake orders, they had to have received it from the official source.

But orders to directly sabotage the education of the Academy students for years would have never gone past the mission assignment desk save in two cases: they were encoded or someone at the Desk had sold out to the enemy.

If a mission was highly-ranked, the orders could be encrypted so that those in the know were restricted. Any and all ANBU movements, for example, were processed that way -even if it was incredibly weird but every administration had its own share of stupidity after all- so that plausible deniability could be a thing.

The one processing the mission at the assignment desk only had to verify the validity of a credential code that came with the encrypted mission orders and if the calculators gave a positive, the mission orders were stamped and sent back out to whoever had opened the request. Sending the orders was then at that person's charge, no questions asked.

This could mean that a part of the cryptanalysis squad was suspect, which was a headache. Or that someone at the Mission Assignment Desk had shifting loyalties, which was a pain in the ass. Considering all those brave ninjas were supposedly some of the most loyal shinobi available to Hiruzen, it was overall painful.

A cross-examination from T&I would take time and was generally one very unpleasant thing to go through. For a loyal ninja to have his allegiance doubted was insulting. Shinobi had no honor on the battlefield but it did not mean they did not have any honor at all. In a world of cheaters and assassins, being wrongly accused of treason was terribly offensive, as loyalty to the village was the only loyalty one could afford to uphold.

That was where Iruka Umino's involvement was absolutely priceless. Nobody questioned a seemingly innocent teacher pulled off from his duty by the Hokage, who was a kind if whimsical old man, as everyone knew. Even when said teacher asked questions he should not really have asked; as long as one had the clearance, especially one as high level as the Hokage's seal, there weren't many questions asked. Paranoia had its limit if one wanted to keep the bureaucratic process a little efficient.

Iruka's little snooping around was far less violent than a full official T&I investigation, with all the broken morale, lost trust, and general unpleasantness such an operation often left in its wake. Everything had been obviously carefully orchestrated so that Iruka could be nothing but white as snow in the eyes of those he was secretly prodding.

A knock on the door of his office tore the Hokage from his thoughts. There was his first "date" for the day.

"Enter," called the aged Kage from behind a plume of blueish smoke.

Iruka Umino immediately let himself in, a manila folder secured under his right arm. After a month and a half of weekly reports, he had become less and less shy.

"Hokage-sama." The chunin saluted, his face the picture of seriousness.

"Have a seat," invited the old Sarutobi with an open hand, gesturing toward one of the two chairs in front of his desk before a few inconspicuous hand-signs sealed the room off and away from prying ears, eyes, and pretty much whatever anyone could come up with to spy on someone.

Fuinjutsu was quite radical if the user knew their way.

"What do you have for me Umino-san?"

"I might have some something, Hokage-sama," said the chunin with the beginning of an enthusiastic grin that wasn't too dissimilar to something Naruto could have sported. The brown-haired young man took a note from the folder and showed it to the Hokage.

"It's a very dated ANBU assignment seal that hasn't been removed from the calculators. It's high enough that the one who sent the mysterious orders to my colleagues could have used it to validate whatever was written as an A-rank order." The man explained to the old ruler. "It's an old code sir but it still checked out, for some reason."

An A-rank order meant whoever was following it wasn't to discuss it with anyone who wasn't cleared to know or the Hokage himself.

"As it is very old," continued Iruka, "it is entirely possible it wasn't recognized by the team at the assignment desk and when the calculators returned a positive, they accepted it."

"Which clears out the ninja working at the Desk but not the cryptanalysis squad. They are the ones responsible for keeping the calculators up to date."

"With respect, Hokage-sama, I've seen the process as part of my standard rotation after chunin promotion. The process is not complicated and pretty much anyone could have put this old code in there."

"So, our mysterious saboteur?"

"Possibly. It would make sense: too many goons and-"

"The probability of one being discovered rises exponentially." The Hokage hummed, his pipe stuck in his mouth. "Any simulation yet?"

"The boundaries are unknown, Hokage-sama. We cannot reasonably calculate any kind of risk yet. That'd put the Yamanaka under too much unnecessary pressure."

The old man huffed and smiled grimly. "I don't like using this particular jutsu anyway. Anything else? Could you trace the code?"

"No Hokage-sama. The code itself was within the rights you gave me to investigate but the owner is above. I would need S-rank clearance apparently."

Hiruzen stopped a string of expletives from leaving his mouth and took a deep breath instead. Only a few very important persons within the village had their own code to encrypt mission orders and S-rank clearance due to their rank. The ANBU commander, the jonin commander, and the head of T&I were among those.

Then, there were two or three people Hiruzen had personally granted the same kind of rights. The Sannin, whom he trusted completely. At least, the two who were still loyal anyway. Minato Namikaze, when the man had still been alive.

But one especially was coming to mind and Hiruzen honestly hoped the feeling in his guts was wrong.

"That foolish man, what is he doing?" The Hokage grumbled in a whisper, so low that Iruka could not hear him.

"I'm sorry Hokage-sama?"

"Nothing, Umino-san. Let me deal with this mysterious code and continue to try and find one of those order slips your colleagues have received. Do you have anything else?"

"No Hokage-sama. With all due respect though, I do not think I'll have much success concerning the disappeared letters."

"Then that should give you time to organize yourself for the next semester, right?" The old Sarutobi offered the chunin a wrinkled smile as he said that.

Iruka smiled himself and nodded with a spark of enthusiasm. His role in this investigation was coming to a close apparently and he would soon resume his duty as a teacher. Rising from his comfortable seat, the chunin saluted once and exited the office of the most important man in the village.

School starting again had never sounded so good. Being suddenly designated as some sort of freelance investigator for this mysterious and nonsensical sabotage affair had been tiring and troublesome, and if Iruka was starting to think like a Nara, it was high time to find his routine again.

* * *

"I think we covered enough ground for a pause." Tiger ordered suddenly, stopping his tree-running abruptly.

The four humans and the three dogs all screeched to a halt and gathered.

"As it is our first mission together, we will introduce ourselves quickly. Initiate, your codename starting today is Maru. I will start. I'm codename Tiger, a ninjutsu and taijutsu specialist. I have supplementary kenjutsu and tracking skills. I'm this squad's sergeant."

"I'm codename Cat, a kenjutsu and infiltration specialist. I have supplementary genjutsu and ninjutsu skills. I'm this squad's corporal."

"I'm codename Dog, a taijutsu and tracking specialist. I have supplementary iryojutsu and genjutsu skills. Those are the Haimura Brothers. They are taijutsu and tracking specialists."

Naruto quickly understood how the introductions worked. Every ANBU was at least passable in all shinobi skills as his three teachers had mentioned. He had no doubt Tiger was entirely capable of infiltrating pretty much anywhere but the man had simply told his teammates what he was specialized in and what he could definitely help with.

If Cat was an infiltration specialist, it meant the team would probably follow her lead if the occasion to use her skills arose.

Naruto liked this way of thinking. It spoke of humility and efficiency. The blond could only wonder what he could say though.

"I'm codename Maru. Huh… I'm a stealth specialist." It was not exactly a question but the boy's tone wasn't affirmative either. Tiger simply nodded, assuring Naruto his assessment was correct. "I have supplementary skill in taijutsu."

To be honest, the blond would not pretend yet he was anywhere with kenjutsu and bragging would undoubtedly earn him a punch so he cautiously kept his assessment humble, if limited.

"Good assessment, Maru but do not sell your kenjutsu short. You are making good progress, fully within acceptable parameters." Cat chimed in. The blond could only turn toward the woman and hope she could guess his smile behind his mask.

"Very well. Now that we know a bit about each other, we can continue. Maru, most sensible formation."

It took Naruto three seconds to piece together a satisfying march order. "Diamond formation, Dog front for her tracking skill, Cat center, genjutsu cover, Tiger and I to the sides, the Haimaru Brothers to the rear for their tracking."

Tiger nodded and Naruto could feel his sensei's approval ooze from him and prickle his own skin. The blond smiled at the weirdly potent sensation but shrugged it off. He had done well apparently.

"Satisfactory. Dog, I want sixteen clicks per hours."

"Roger, Sarge."

A second latter and the entire team was blitzing through the trees of Fire Country, their sight to the north, in the direction of the Land of Grass.

* * *

**AN: I hope you enjoyed. I know I'm a villainous tease but I swear, chapter 12 will be action-packed. As in the *bam, wham, boom* kind of action, with some ninja goodness. Now it is time for a random shout out: go read any stories authored by slythefoxx2. He is good at telling them.**

**A little world-building exercise for you all: Konoha is an alliance of various ninja clans, created to avoid war or, in a less cynical way of seeing it, establishing peace. Logically, the Hokage's rule cannot be absolute, as the clans would fear for their freedom and rights if that were the case. How do you create a coherent political system fitting all that? How do you balance political power? (I want your assignments on my desk on Monday. ;-) )**

**Like any author, my diet mainly consists of reviews so leave one. Please, feed me!**


	12. Chapter 12 Encounter

**A/N: Hello everyone. Chapter 12 is finally here and I won't delay your reading further. I hope you enjoy.**

* * *

Naruto's first mission ever as a ninja had concluded without incident, which surprised his teammates immensely. It was kind of an accepted phenomenon for first missions in the corps to go wrong. Dog had signed herself at their return to Konoha, mumbling that their next assignment would go terribly wrong.

The reality was that the month of border sweep had been a tranquil affair, mainly he consisting of treks achieved at unreasonable speed without spending chakra. No time had been lost on the boy's training either: from tree to water walking, team formation, strategy and tactic, shurikenjutsu, and not forgetting Naruto's beginning with ninjutsu, every free second had been used to their fullest.

The blond boy had revealed a knack for inventive shuriken tricks but had shone most brightly in ninjutsu, revealing where his talent lay. There were no two words about it, Naruto was a ninjutsu monster. He had more or less proved that he had a quick understanding of ninjutsu and internal chakra manipulation by learning shadow clone in record time and making an internalized version of the reverse Jyuuken work but proper guidance had allowed the blond to truly shine.

It had only taken Tiger beating the concept of "mastering" a jutsu, rather than simply "knowing" it, inside his skull for Naruto to fully use his potential: when a few misconceptions had been corrected and knowledge had been provided when lacking, his ridiculously huge chakra reserves, his bullheaded approach to a challenge, and his ingenuity when facing a problem had done the rest.

His knowledge of his own chakra, at this point intimate, and his augmented control, had also allowed Naruto to master leave-cutting in the month, changing and attuning his chakra to his wind affinity.

His shadow clones also. According to Cat and Dog's whiny protests, it was definitely cheating, to what Naruto had answered "ninja", possibly making Tiger positively radiate pride. Possibly.

His natural affinity -or in other words, the element Naruto's chakra was most attuned to- had been tested for Wind and Tiger had lost no time on starting the boy on elemental manipulation while giving him two jutsu to learn: the Great Breakthrough and the Wind Bullets.

Elemental manipulation allowed for a jutsu user to forgo the hand-signs that moulded the chakra to resemble a specific element, making the process subconscious, faster, and more potent. As a result, the jutsu were cast with fewer hand-signs -so faster- and were more powerful. A higher level of elemental manipulation even allowed form-free jutsu: the ninja would just bend the element to his direct will, without needing any hand-signs.

But those capable of that were seldom seen, as even the Sandaime Hokage wasn't capable of it, and for a good yet simple reason.

Elemental manipulation was hard, very much so. Naruto's affinity only meant that a ridiculous percentile of his chakra was already naturally moulded with the characteristic of Wind Chakra, making wind jutsu slightly easier to learn and cast. It did not mean at all that the exercise was anything resembling a piece of cake.

Naruto was a dedicated worker. The combination of his curious, inquisitive mind and his love for hands-on approaches had quickly yielded results as far as jutsu theory went. Casting a jutsu repeatedly and altering it by adding, modifying, or removing hand-signs was easy for him, given his abilities.

Elemental manipulation though, that was a bitch and a half, and all his hard work had yet to award the blond with a real breakthrough. Oh, he could manipulate his chakra to cut a damned leaf in half, as required the first exercise of Wind Manipulation. His intimate knowledge of his own chakra won through meditation and his extended control had seen to that.

There was a tiny detail he just could not wrap his head around. Naruto just could not understand how cutting had anything to do with wind. Wind did not cut and Naruto frankly did not get why and how he was supposed to integrate this chakra to his Great Breakthrough, which was a jutsu made for pushing people away, nor into his Wind Bullets which was supposed to pierce people.

It was a load of bull, in the blond's honest opinion and Tiger had been stumped by the question. It was the reason Naruto was holed up in the library despite being on a three-day leave. There was a lot to be researched and things to experiment on and he had little time before he would be sent out again. Eagerly, the blond hunched over a large book with a leather back cover.

"The theory of all jutsu", by Hiruzen Sarutobi and another author whose name had been redacted, looked promising. If it had been written by the Professor himself, it had to be somewhat useful. The blond wondered for a second who the mysterious co-author was before shrugging. It wasn't his problem as of now.

"The use of chakra through hand-signs, commonly called ninjutsu by us ninjas, is a very obscure science. This book will try to rationalize the mechanisms involved in moulding chakra, casting jutsu, creating jutsu, and so on and expose a few theories as to their inner workings, some never postulated before."

Naruto smiled; this book sounded perfect.

It was only hours later that the blond exited the underground compound, his head hurting and his eyes bloodshot, various concepts all more complex than the other jumbled in his brain. To say he had not understood a quarter of what he had read would be an understatement. For the first time in ever, Naruto really resented the Academy for messing up his education and himself for acting like a clown for the better part of it.

The boy knew he simply lacked too much knowledge to even begin to get what his grandfather's book was hinting at. It was humbling because the thought anyone could know so much was obviously so. It was infuriating because Naruto would not have been so utterly lost by some concepts if he had been a bit more diligent in his studies.

Sure he had enjoyed history, literature, and the various manual lessons on gardening, carpentry, and other practical stuff they had received.

But he had also been childishly preoccupied with ninjutsu and martial art, only to disdainfully ignore subjects such as mathematics and physic and of course, it was those subjects he ironically needed to know about now. Worse, his obsession with jutsu hadn't even paid off because he had been too immature to accept exercising his chakra control.

It did not really matter that, had he diligently worked on the leaf exercise, it would not have mattered because of his tenketsus being weirdly closed off. It was the mindset that counted and his had been disastrous. You could work relentlessly, if you went in the wrong direction and started from nowhere, you couldn't go anywhere. It was well and good to know about history but a ninja needed to be well rounded.

All that because he had wanted to be flashy enough for the villagers to see him and impressive so that Sakura would accept a date.

Naruto resisted the urge to hit himself. He had already banged his head hard against the reading desk of the library, so hard that the old librarian, who was a pretty "chill" man, had come swearing that, while the blond was free to try and liquefy his brain, he was not so cordially invited to do that elsewhere.

Taking a deep breath, the boy centred himself and calmed down. He had jotted down on a notebook an insane amount of things he needed to go and read about and with the help of his shadow clones, he would do just that. It was simply a shame that there was so much ground to cover, partly due to his own negligence.

He would still find a way to prank the hell out of his old Academy teachers. They also had a hand in his state of ignorance.

First of all, he had to eat something, and the weather was perfect for some ramen. In fact, after a month-long mission where ration bars had been on the menu for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, any weather was perfect for ramen. It was lucky Konoha just happened to be home to the best ramen cooks in the world. A goofy smile bloomed on Naruto's face in anticipation.

* * *

The seventy-two hours of rest Naruto had been granted came and went faster than they had any right to and soon, the boy was once again stuffed inside his armours and at the ready, prepared to go out on a new mission.

Naruto, his teachers, and another team were gathered in a briefing room. It was a small closet with enough chairs for sixteen persons to seat -in other words, a platoon- with a screen where one could project various information. Presently, there was a map of the border region between Fire Country and the Land of Rice.

"We have a bit of an international problem at hand, ladies and gentlemen," explained Tiger in his monotone. "An unidentified group probably lead by ninjas attacked the border hamlet of Ohira Gai sometime in the past week. Two platoons from the Regular have been dispatched in order to reinforce our presence in the vicinity but when they arrived, the village was nothing but ruins. The alert has been given thanks to a knife-grinder who was making his monthly visit. Our ninjas could not pursue, as the attackers withdrew beyond the borders of Rice Country."

The man paused for a second and, seeing that he had the undivided attention of all seven other ninjas in the room, continued. "Under normal circumstances, we would dispatch a diplomatic request to the Daimyo of Rice for the right of intervention but we cannot afford that. Villagers have been captured and we do not know what they plan to do with them."

"No ransom demanded? What is the profile of the abducted?" A man from the second team, wearing a bird mask, asked.

"No ransom demand as of yet. There is no particular profile: men and women, all rather young, have been abducted. Between twenty and forty in total."

"Slave traders?" Another ANBU, a lizard-masked woman this one, offered.

"Doubtful, considering slavery isn't legal in Rice Country."

"It isn't the case in Lightning Country." The first unknown, bird-masked man offered. "Not entirely at least."

"They would need to cross Rice, Hot Water, and Frost. Extremely inefficient trade route." Tiger countered.

"What about sea trade?"

"The authorities of Rice Country would not allow such a trade. And the Frozen Sea is not ideal for seafaring."

"An attempt at contraband then?" The bird-masked man suggested.

"The coast is straight, there is nowhere to set up a pirate port in Rice." Cat interjected.

There were a few seconds of silence before Dog broke it. "I don't like it." The girl said, nodding sagely. "No one raids a village for fun."

"But what for then?"

"Maru, anything comes to mind from your cover work?" Dog asked, turning toward Naruto.

The blond racked his brain for a few seconds. Rice Country itself did not allow slave trading. Neither did Iron Country to the west; after three bloody slave revolts, they had chosen to exploit their rich iron mines by free men. Lightning was too far, especially if the sea route was out. Which left an illegal client inside Rice Country or in the Land of Hot Water. Or something far worse the boy absolutely did not want to think about, like a cult of some sort.

"Illegal buyer from either Rice of Hot Water. I... Don't want to think of anything else." The youngest operator answered before explaining his reasoning.

All ANBU nodded. That seemed possible. "If that is the case, we need to uncover who this buyer is." The bird-masked man said with determination.

"I just don't get the why. Do they expect Fire Country to do nothing?" The lizard-masked woman mused aloud.

"The discovery of the raid happened early by chance," explained Cat. "Without the knife grinder, it would have taken several weeks."

"There is no more time for speculations soldiers." Tiger interrupted, the sheer authority his voice suddenly manifested silencing everyone present in the room. "The mission has been approved by Hokage-sama himself and we are not here to discuss the motives of criminals."

The seven ninjas chorused an obedient "yes sir" as they focused on Tiger once again.

"We pack for a one-month scouting mission beyond enemy lines with the possibility for it to change to a hostage rescue mission if the occasion arises. We do not know the number of hostiles. We know some probably have ninja training but we do not know how many, nor their level. Due to those unknowns, this is an A-rank so I'll remind you to take your precautions, ladies and gentlemen. We leave in half an hour, exit seven."

The rattling sound of chairs being displaced invaded the room for a moment before all eight ninjas exited. Naruto walked up to Tiger.

"Yes?" The man asked in his droning, emotionless drawl.

"Hum… I was wondering what you meant by taking precaution?"

"This mission is ranked A and as such, it is fully possible we die during its course. Do you not have a testament?"

The blond felt his stomach sink and his guts twist in knots at his sergeant's explanation. Twelve did not feel like it was the right age to write a testament yet he supposed it was the world he was living in now.

That was it. That was his first true mission. He would be tested. His skill, his mettle, all of his being would go through the tempering flames of combat. Naruto was not sure which, of sickening terror or violent excitement would win the battle that had begun to rage inside him. The blond nearly heaved before a strong hand clasped his shoulder.

The sudden contact broke Naruto out of his spiralling gunk and the boy rose his head so that his gaze met Tiger's.

"You are a fine ninja, Maru. Believe in yourself. Yet if you must have doubts, at least believe in your team. The Will of Fire shall prevail."

Naruto fought against the bile that had risen in his throat and swallowed painfully. With a tentative nod, the blond answered in a whisper. "H-hai."

Half an hour later, the two teams were gathered in front of gate seven. Team Ku, consisting of Hawk, Crane, Snake, and Lizard, would be under Tiger's command. Naruto breathed deeply in hope of appeasing his still frayed nerves but to no avail. He had written his testament, giving his few nothings to Konohamaru and it had been difficult not to empty the content of his stomach.

Tiger threw a sweeping glance at the assembled ninjas and when he spoke, his voice was vibrating with a rare kind of authority.

"We are shinobi and we do our duty, in the name of the Will of Fire. Let's move out, Vic formation behind Dog. Dog, I want good speed."

In a rush of wind, the eight ninjas started running, working their muscles hard, trickling a tiny but constant amount of chakra to strengthen and heal them. For civilians, it was a full three-days journey or so between Konoha and the small village of Ohira Gai and they had twenty-four hours to travel this distance before tracking would become overly difficult.

They would make it in ten.

Tiger really was a slave driver.

* * *

Naruto swayed on his feet, the lack of oxygen accessing his brain making the ground dance, and squashed the urge to just empty the content of his stomach inside his mask. Instead, he folded around the waist, his hands on his knees, panting for air. The blond blinked rapidly to clear his eyes from the beads of sweat trickling into them. He had a momentary grateful thought for Tiger and Cat who had convinced him to cut his hair. Had he still had his shaggy, long curls, no doubt he would have been drowning in his own sweat by now.

The balaclava was not that open and the helmet weighed heavily on his head after the insane marathon he had just completed.

They had run ten hours straight, without break, at a pace he considered barbaric, and it was not something he wanted to do ever again. Too bad he was in ANBU and that would be expected of him. Maybe he would be able to say no.

Three weeks ago, he had hit the lower speed requirement for an ANBU endurance run and, thanks to his very good stamina, he was able to maintain this speed for days if necessary. But today, Dog had imposed a pace he was not yet trained for and Naruto had needed to actively use chakra to sustain himself. A lot of chakra. The natural, subconscious trickle that was usually enough had not been and he had actually spent more than he was comfortable parting with.

However, his capacity to follow and finish the travel of the day was the proof he was becoming stronger and stronger. Naruto was not without pride at the accomplishment but the feeling was not enough to ease the burning sensation of his lungs trying to give up on him while his heart was decidedly hesitating between quitting now or immediately.

It did not help that the seven other ANBU with him showed no easily visible sign of being winded if not for their powerful, noisy yet forcefully regulated, breathing.

"Keep walking Maru," advised Cat to the blond in-between deep breaths. "It will help regulate your heart beat faster and better."

And indeed, Naruto could see that all his fellow ninjas were walking in large circles to abate their frenzied heart and relax their muscles. Observing them further as he started walking, he could see their muscles trembling and cramping, and their breaths were more gasping than he had thought at first. The blond frowned; he still needed to work on his discipline if he was still so openly displaying weakness like he was. The others were just as exhausted but they simply did not allow it to be easily seen.

"Don't forget to stretch either." The woman added after a second of thought. The blond simply nodded. Cat's words sounded wise and Naruto knew the benefits of stretching after a rough effort.

While the blond desperately fought to return his body to its normal rhythm, Tiger was already meeting with the leader of the regular forces already deployed. It took the man a few minutes to get a report he was satisfied with and when he returned, the blond could stand without the impression his heart was trying to jump outside his chest.

"We need to go immediately. The trail isn't fresh anymore. The northern wind is still strong and it has been pushing rainclouds from the Frost Sea down to here. Thirty minutes to freshen up and we depart." Tiger ordered sternly. "Maru, do not allow yourself to get cold, keep walking, and drink a lot. The rendezvous point is the northern gate. Dismissed."

There were seven silent nods and the two ANBU teams separated, Naruto dutifully followed Cat and Tiger while Dog took the three hounds with her, already intent on finding any kind of trail she could.

A quick trip to the toilets, a ration bar, and a ridiculous amount of water later, and all eight ANBU had gathered once again at the northern gate, standing at the ready, some lightly jumping in place to keep their muscles hot.

"Found something Dog?" Tiger asked tersely.

"The scents are old but I got it. I'm quite sure they are not waiting for us."

"Good, same formation, Dog you go as fast as you can without losing the track but fifteen clicks max. Go."

Naruto swallowed a groan of misery and prayed the Flame he would be able to hold on. The half an hour break had done wonders but even he was not eternal.

It took the two ANBU teams another hour to reach the border with Rice Country. The spec-ops followed a scent that did not bother leaving the road, a road that quickly changed into a sort of trail until it morphed into nothing more than a forest path. All eight ANBU stopped at once when Tiger ordered them to with an abruptly raised fist. On the side, disappearing under the undergrowth, was a rough slab of stone indicating the border between the two countries.

After motioned toward her for her attention, Tiger signed something to Dog in a flash. Enemies?

The teenager simply shook her head no and the man relaxed minutely.

"Welcome to Rice Country ladies and gentlemen." Tiger drawled in a mirthless whisper. "We will continue to follow the trail until night falls, then we take a break. Questions?"

"Priority?"

"Stealth.

"Contact handling?"

"Unseen and observation. We switch to destroy if contact is identified as our objective, on my orders only. Silent communication starting now. Be on guard."

All nodded and the eight soldiers resumed their run yet this time, all were nearly completely silent if a bit slower. No twigs snapped under their feet, no bush was displaced by their sleeves, and it was as if eight ghosts had organized an otherworldly procession in the slowly deeming light of the late afternoon. It did not take long for Naruto to spot what Dog was following. A few days ago, a rather large group of people had gone through the same trail they were now following. The majority of the traces were that of untrained civilians, many injured, yet the blond could see the proofs of the passage of grown men, armed. Some were more worrying because they were subtler, which pointed towards ninjas.

It was on guard and eyes wide open that Naruto entered in a foreign country for the second time in his life and still illegally. The Land of Rice was very different from Fire Country. Most of the Land of Fire was a plain, covered with a dense, dark forest made up of towering colossal trees, while multiple rivers cut through the vegetal maze, flowing from the north to the south, down in the Sea of Tea or spilling over in the Land of Rivers.

Rice paddies were massively concentrated in the south of the country whereas the rest of the land lived off of the exploitation of the forest, cutting down and processing all kind of exotic wood for carpentry, naval construction, pieces of furniture, fuel, matches, and so on, or on the contrary growing semi-wild orchards to collect all kind of fruits.

As such, it was a surprise for Naruto to see that the landscape of Rice Country was the opposite of what he was used to. Konoha did have rice paddies along the Naka river, of course, mainly overseen by the Akimichi. But still, it was not the village hidden in the leaves for nothing and the woods were an essential part of Konoha.

In the Land of Rice, the landscape seemingly consisted of paddies and there was nothing that could remotely be called a forest, in the blond's opinion. There were plenty enough of trees that the eight ghosts were never spotted by the rare peasants still working in the fields but the boy felt naked nonetheless.

The trees were so small, they looked so frail, and it was definitely impossible to use them to travel. The two ANBU teams were forced to progress on the ground and Naruto did not like that situation one bit. It was somewhat reassuring to stand at the top of a massive tree, like having the high ground or something like that.

Tiger pushed his men for four more hours before he allowed them to stop; the light of the sun had ceased to shine upon the world, replaced by the reflection of an incomplete moon. Once again, Naruto fought against the urge to buckle and fall and stretched to cool down. He felt disgusting; like he was bathing in his own sweat but he knew, after his first mission, that all ninja clothes were made in a fibre that easily dried.

_Four hours stop. Maru, Hawk, last guard. Crane, Cat, third. Snake and I, second. Dog, Lizard, first. Eat, drink now._

Naruto gratefully allowed himself to sit on the ground with a stifled grunt of exhaustion. Not bothering to mask himself with a partial transformation given the darkness of the night, the blond wolfed down a dreadfully tasteless ration bar and took a greedy swig of water of out his canteen before he curled inside his cloak and allowed sleep to take him.

Fourteen hours ago, he had been in Konoha, receiving the second mission of his career, and the first one where he was sure to see combat and kill for the first time. He had no time to contemplate further as his exhaustion was too great to allow him to dwell on unnecessary thoughts.

Naruto awoke with a start a second before he felt Cat touch his shoulder in order to wake him up. The blond stifled a string of expletives and displaced his mask slightly to rub his sleep-addled eyes before he splashed his face with some water from his canteen. Shaking himself like a startled dog, the boy eventually replaced all his equipment as it should be and flared his chakra gently to open his tenketsus that sleep had closed off.

_Acceptable, you can go faster. Next time._ Cat signed, to which Naruto simply nodded, swallowing a defeated sigh. He had no idea how he would ever go on today. He hoped the bandits weren't too far away because endurance running was the invention of the devil and Tiger was its messenger, sent to spread the vile torture.

Naruto's hour of guard passed without incident and soon, the eight ANBU were up and going again, following Dog and her hounds.

It took another day of a slow hunt, the tracks being already muddied by rain and time until the ANBU caught up to their preys during the morning of the third day. Naruto was a shuddering bundle of nerves and he had decided that the worst part of a fight was not the exchange of blows but the time leading to it. Marching blind through Rice Country, following an unknown number of bandits, some possibly ninjas, all that for three days non stop without much sleep, with the added knowledge that a bunch of Fire Country citizens were counting on them was tiring, to say the least.

The sun was barely up, Tiger had sent Dog and Hawk for recon and Naruto was biting the inside of his cheek, too full of nervous anticipation to enjoy, or even consider, the possibility of rest. Just a few more hours and he would experience and hopefully live through his first fight. Despite what it meant, despite the blood that would flow, despite the death that would doubtlessly occur, he was expectant, impatient. He just couldn't wait to test how strong he was, how much better he had become. Not that he would ever wish to kill anyone of course. Those he would fight were kidnappers, after all, bandits, the scum of the earth that deserved to be punished, right? He was to be their executioner, the harbinger of their sentence, simple as that, no feelings involved.

He was certainly not excited to kill anyone, right?

The boy was startled out of his troubled musings by the hand of Tiger falling on his shoulders. Taking a deep breath to calm his instinctual need to jab a kunai somewhere inside the man as a defensive reflex, Naruto looked at his officer.

_You are nervous. Meditate._

The blond had to try twice before his finger signed what he wanted them to sign. _Acknowledged, sergeant._

Naruto was dragged out of his painfully achieved meditative state an hour later by the return of Dog and Hawk. The boy felt better, centred, and at least his mind was not clogged by questions he should not even have asked himself.

He had a simple answer: he was a ninja, and there was no rights or wrongs, only the words of his Kage. He was a ninja and there was no emotion, at least not during a mission. He would solve everything else later when they would be back in Fire Country.

_Report_, ordered Tiger silently with a single motion of his right hand.

_Thirty-seven hostages, bad shape. Twenty-one hostiles, five ninjas, chunin max, no allegiance signs. Waiting in a clearing, camp two days old, no relief tent. _Hawk signed quickly.

Tiger emitted a minute humming noise. The camp was two days old which could have meant it was the bandits' final stop but the problem was, they weren't touching the women. Twenty-four hours was plenty enough time to set up an open-air whorehouse, except if the ladies could not be touched.

That meant -Tiger was sure of that, ninety per cent- they had a client because, in his experience, outlaws and female captives de facto meant rape if the women were not reserved for something, or someone, else. And if the kidnappers were indeed waiting here for a potential buyer, the mission had just become a tad more complex. They could not lead thirty-seven hostages back to the Land of Fire securely if they were pursued. Leaving an unknown threat behind one's back was never a good idea. Tiger and his men would need to ensure the neutralization of both threats. Easier said than done given that they had no idea when the buyer would arrive if it existed at all.

The missions orders were clear, they had to recover the hostages and lead them back home. That left Tiger with two choices: he could order to attack now, start retreating and be possibly caught by a faster, unknown threat in an unknown time. Or they could wait for a bit to see if the client did indeed exist and assess its threat level. They would need to establish watch over an undetermined period of time, which would increase the chance of them being detected, if minutely. The man sighed silently so that none of his subordinates could hear him. If there was one thing he did not want to risk, it was having unknown pursuers on his tail.

_Fox-hole, everyone. Observation, relay. Lizard, Cat, go. Rotation three hours, signal everything._

The two ANBU nodded and darted away while the six ninjas left followed Dog who quickly found them a place where they could dig their fox-holes.

A fox-hole was a simple hole dug underneath a sizeable bush and partly covered by a piece of cloth made of the same chakra reactive fibre as an ANBU cloak. It made for a simple yet efficient hiding spot. It was, of course, less pleasant than a good old tree but it did the job nonetheless.

The rotation allowed Naruto to sleep for nearly six hours - a luxury if anything - before he felt one of the Haimura Brothers, La, come to him. The blond silently followed the dog until he reached the hiding spot Tiger had chosen for observing the bandits' encampment. Naruto simply nudged his officer's hand lightly and settled as comfortably as possible in a shallow hole, covering himself with his cloak, leaves, undergrowth, and stifling his chakra flow.

He had learned to consciously trigger his disappearing trick after Dragon, Owl, and Tiger had explained to him what exactly it was that he was doing. Dragon had purveyed instructions on a very peculiar genjutsu in order to help the boy master and further develop his subconscious chakra cloaking. Genjutsu were difficult but Naruto knew that right now, he was as undetectable as he could get.

Taking a deep breath, the young ANBU initiate readied himself for a long wait. As he settled himself for his watch, he ignored the alien buzzing of resigned fear and greedy anticipation that pervaded the clearing.

* * *

It was not during Naruto's watch that a second group joined the first band of outlaws. As the sun slowly went down on the third day, Naruto was jolted awake by Dog this time. He knew what it meant, as it was not his turn to go keep an eye on their targets. It took less than a second for Naruto to be ready and going. Squashing all unnecessary thoughts, the boy hurried along the rest of the ANBU to the border or the clearing, where all eight operators lay down, blending as best as they could in their environment. Naruto took a deep breath and allowed the peculiar state of relaxed tension of his comrades to smooth his own jitter.

Eight ninjas, chunin chakra level. Dog informed by hand signs.

In the clearing itself, eight newcomers had arrived. Dressed in black pants and greyish top, their head masked by a balaclava, they were wearing a uniform. The mysterious headband engraved with an eighth note dissipated any doubt the ANBU could have had.

The Konoha operators all swore silently. They weren't really supposed to engage ninjas from a hidden village, even an unknown hidden village. Their collective musing was interrupted when one of the mysterious shinobi handed a scroll to a mean-looking, muscled man, the leader of the bandits.

It was the payment. The mysterious ninjas were buyers indeed. Tiger shifted ever so slightly so that all seven of his soldiers could see his hands.

_Execute plan two._

All seven ANBU silently gave the man a thumb up and scattered, stalking at the very edge of the clearing but not entering it.

Naruto felt like his stomach was right behind his teeth and as if his heart was dancing a jig right inside his ears. He was shivering from uncontrolled anticipation, adrenaline rushing in his blood vessels. Tightly, he gripped a kunai and readied himself.

He heard more than he saw the hostages being dragged out of the meeting point and on a small animal trail, watched by the eight mysterious ninjas, while the group of outlaws departed in another direction. Naruto took a sharp breath. His team would follow the ninja while the other would stalk the bandits. They would strike in about half an hour or so, just to be outside the range of each other. Until then, they would simply stick to the shadow.

Thirty minutes was an incredibly long time in a trying situation. The four ANBU of team Ro had stalked their objective with the efficiency of as many Jaguars and had remained undetected but it did nothing to abate Naruto's anxiety. The enemy nin were too relaxed, too unconscious. They felt secure in a place they apparently knew and considered home and they would be struck down, smoothly. Criminally, almost.

Suddenly, he heard the sound he was waiting for, the cry of a bird native to Fire Country. His body, more than his mind, obeyed the command. Joining his hands in a cross-shaped hand sign, Naruto silently willed five clones in existence and flooded his body with chakra.

In a blur, the blue-eyed assassin sped through the undergrowth, taking by surprise an unsuspecting enemy nin while his clones fell like harpies on another.

There was no fight; the enemy ninja was entirely too surprised by the ambush to put up one. Naruto's target had no time to react to the cloaked ghost appearing in front of him like a vengeful spirit. Ignoring the alien roar of fear and surprise he heard at the limit of his psyche, the blond had already used one of the tricks Cat had taught him in shurikenjutsu. Hurled by a smooth, whip-like motion of both his arms, two kunai were flying toward his opponent who could only raise his arms to intercept them. The blades sunk in the man's forearms, eliciting a pained grunt.

The ninja did not notice the two senbon Naruto had projected in the same movement, hidden by the much larger kunai. The long, steel needles flew along a vastly different trajectory and embedded themselves in the startled man's calves, damaging both his sciatic nerves and causing pain to erupt in the ninja's entire lower body.

For a second, Naruto felt the characteristic heat of a fire jutsu heat the forest somewhere on his side but the blond paid it no mind. Ruthlessly, the boy engaged the wounded, staggering man in close combat.

In a swift movement, Naruto took hold of the man's right arm and stepped inside his non-existent guard while rotating, exposing his back the ninja while forcing the ninja's arm to overextend. With his free hand, the boy punched with all his might at the elbow joint, which gave in with a satisfying crunching noise. This time, the mysterious nin screamed in pain.

The boy stifled the man's cry and his desperate attempt at a palm strike at the initiate's head by elbowing the incoming hand away before driving his folded arms under the shinobi's chin while creating a lock around his fragilized arm. With a final twist, the enemy's right elbow broke completely.

Naruto exited the man's immediate proximity, rotating again, using the momentum to deliver a debilitating knife strike to the enemy's jugular. With a gurgling sound, the hostile crumbled. The blond did not lose a second and drew his chokuto across the downed man's throat, flooding it with wind chakra.

Naruto's mastery over the elemental transformation was nowhere near perfect but the reinforced meshing of the balaclava gave under the blade like butter under a hot wire.

Blood escaped from the gaping, morbid smile Naruto's blade had just opened on the dead ninja's neck. With fascination, the blond watched as the red, life-sustaining liquid escaped its frail prison, pumped toward a strange kind of freedom by a dying heart. There was a look of absolute panic, the colour of sheer terror, in the drowning man's eyes. There were maybe traces of anger too. All of it was grating against Naruto's mind, like a furious flood attempting to break his mental levees.

The funniest was undoubtedly the small bubbles the man created with each of his desperate attempts to breathe. Eventually the powerful, foaming almost, bleeding slowed to a stop.

The lights in the ninja's eyes dimmed.

Suddenly, Naruto remembered four versions of himself tackling another masked shinobi to the ground, one stabbing each limb, a fifth replica firing a powerful Wind Bullet through the chest of a panicked man.

The blond felt air rush in his lungs. Had he forgotten to breathe? The man was dead but Naruto kept staring. He knew that the other ANBU, his teammates, would not face any problem given how easily he had dispatched his own given opponents. He had created clones to take care of the civilians. He could indulge his curiosity for a few seconds, right?

The hand falling on his shoulder and dragging him out of his slowly spiralling thoughts was a sign that apparently, contemplating a corpse was not something he had the time for right now. Naruto reflexively moved to strike but stopped at the sight of his officer. His attack had felt sluggish anyway.

"We need to book it." Ordered Tiger tersely.

"Yes, sergeant." Someone answered in Naruto's place. The boy was pretty sure he did not talk like that.

Willing his eyes to detach themselves from the rapidly cooling sack of flesh that had been a living, breathing man just a few moments ago, Naruto turned around only to fall to his knees. The adrenaline high he just been on had just abandoned him and the blond felt his vision sway just as his ears gave him with absolute certainty the indications that he was definitely on a boat on an ocean by rocky weather.

The boy barely had the time to remove his mask before he heaved, the meagre contents of his stomach escaping it. Naruto watched for a second and frowned.

"We move Maru." Tiger reminded him with steel in his voice. Naruto could only nod, still confused by his momentary weakness, and stand up. "Good," said Tiger, his voice back to the emotionless monotone. "Let's go."

As silently as they could, the four ANBU herded the group of terrified civilians away from the lieu of the fight, in the direction of Fire Country. Distractedly, the blond saw Tiger create a few clones from the earth and gather the eight dead ninjas they had just ambushed before he made them sink under the soil.

Pure earth chakra manipulation, Naruto surmised. Simple but efficient in order not to leave any trace. The boy returned to the present and approached Dog when she signed for him to come to her.

"What is it?" The blond's voice rung curiously muffled to his own ears as if he wasn't inhabiting his body anymore. Naruto felt like he was observing himself talk to his teammate.

"Team Ku should have taken care of the bandits by now but I won't take any risk. I want ten clones patrolling our rear and northern flank."

"Yes," Naruto whispered, again barely conscious of the fact he had spoken.

It definitely felt strange. Maybe there was something wrong with him? The boy touched his body to check for wounds, ignoring the strange look Dog was giving him but found none. Given the fact he could barely feel what his fingers touched though, he might have missed something. Ultimately, he decided to shrug the questions away.

He created the ten clones his tracker had required of him and watched as they departed, stiff and distracted.

He had other things to take care of anyway, like the two ghosts silently screaming murder and revenge just behind him. He would need to deal with that.

* * *

**A/N: I hope you enjoyed. Alright, this is going to be a rather lengthy note, so do not feel obligated to read everything or at all.**

**First off, the reason it took that long to get this chapter out was a peculiar case of writer block. I knew what I wanted to write, I did not know how to write it. Real life kept me busy as well, which did not facilitate the process. Chapter 13 is already being worked on and should be released soon as compensation of sort. I know I promised action and I suppose this chapter 12 won't be satisfying for many of you. All I ask is for a little bit of patience.**

**I know many of you suspected Naruto's very first mission to go wrong. The fact it did not is a message form me to you all: I'll try to be surprising, so be on your toes.**

**Secondly, some of you remarked that 15 km/h is slow. While it is absolutely not slow and certainly not the average running speed of a human, it is rather unimpressive for a superhuman ninja. Yet you all need to remember that the Warmer is basically a hard slope that Naruto runs without active use of chakra. Nonetheless, it happened that I actually played myself, using various measurement units rather than one. It is corrected now and Naruto average speed on the Warmer is roughly 20 km/h, without active use of chakra. If he decides to flood his body with his life energy, Naruto will run much faster but for a greater cost.**

**Now to answer a guest reviewer who asked me if I have a pa-tr-eon account. The answer is no. Your kind reviews are payment enough.**

**To answer some complaints about my use of the rank "sergeant": what is the hierarchy between two chunin, or two jonin? Who has command? We have no idea so I will use supplementary military ranks however I damn please. The debate is closed and there is no use leaving a comment about that again (be it in support or against).**

**Shout out to Lord Kyuubi, who proofread this and gave some valuable and valued feedback.**

**Don't forget to leave a review, I feed on them.**

**P.S: did you know that it is impossible to write pa-tr-eon on the doc manager? The word is automatically erased once you save your document. Well fuck you, FFdotNet, fuck you.**


	13. Chapter 13 Blood

**AN: "To own or not to own, that is the question." Hatlem, act III, scene 1, by Stillesapples . Proofreading by Lord Kyuubi. Praise His work. Enjoy the read.**

* * *

Naruto twitched, his ears strained to pick up the barest of sound, his eyes reduced to thin lines in the hope it would focus his vision. The blond boy nervously rolled his shoulders and neck, trying to loosen the knot of stress that was locking them uncomfortably. An exercise in futility.

Escorting a gaggle of exhausted, malnourished civilians back to their rightful country, all the while avoiding curious eyes, was tiring.

The two ANBU teams had reunited quickly after the trash had been disposed of and they had herded the former prisoners toward Fire Country; a long walk had begun.

Naruto hated Rice Country. The absence of any sizeable trees was cruelly slowing their progression, as they couldn't afford to be seen, even by mere peasants. The ANBUs were not supposed to even be here, the civilians of Fire Country had been abducted, and there was no telling how much time it would take for hostile ninjas to discover some of their soldiers were missing.

Rice Country was so desperately flat, with nowhere to hide when escorting untrained people. The blond was quite certain their ragtag convoy had been spotted too many times already.

Naruto twitched again as something moved slightly beyond his field of view, just outside of his focus. The blond whirled around, kunai at the ready, before he frowned in annoyance, his teeth grinding in exasperation. It was the ghost again.

One more reason to hate Rice Country. He had never met any ghost in Konoha and that made the giant, backward rice-field even more despicable in the blond's opinion. Mumbling silently, the boy returned to his watch.

Dog looked at the youngest member of her team twitching and nervously looking around. He had been out of it since the ambush and his two subsequent kills, some four days ago. Dog knew first kills were more often than not hard to swallow and when they were not, it spoke of psychopathic tendencies nobody wanted to deal with.

Certainly, Tiger had taken five minutes to give the usual pick-me-up speech, about how they had done the right thing, how those men, by their actions, had been marked to die. The reality was that, beyond the mission parameters that put the ANBU teams in strict illegality, it was not that easy to slit a man's throat, no matter how guilty he was found to be.

Dog knew full well what Maru was going through. The fact that killing came with the job did not make it particularly easier to deal with it. It wasn't even a moral question; anyone living in a ninja village and raised as a ninja was desensitized to that quickly. The order of the village was both right and good. A death ordered by the village could not be anything bad, only right and good. Hence killing for the village was never bad, only right and good. Those were the ideals carefully cultivated by the Academy.

The problem was much more fundamental in aspect. There was a specific kind of horror to discover how easy it was to rob a man of his life. A disgusting high came with it, the feeling of pure, unadulterated, absolute power over so fickle yet so precious a thing. A temptation, sweet and sickly, to experience it again. A thirst that all ninja had to resist, for giving in would be a betrayal of their village. Only a formal order could unleash it.

Of course, there were also the eyes throwing reproachful glares and the voices mumbling curses. Killing up close was the worst because it was a sure-fire way to have the spiteful ghosts of your victims follow you relentlessly.

For people with heightened senses, it was worse. An Inuzuka could hear the heart of their enemy slowly flutter and stop and Naruto had proven that his hearing was at least on par with the members of Dog's clan.

It was reassuring, in a way, that the young initiate was reacting poorly. It meant he was a functional human. It was nonetheless worrying because they were on a mission, still deep within another country's borders, and possibly chased by ninja of unknown affiliation. Maru could not allow himself the luxury of being distracted yet despite Tiger's numerous reprimands, the boy was still letting his mind wander through uncharted and dangerous territory.

With a single push of her legs, Dog found herself next to the initiate and squeezed his shoulder. The boy started, but relaxed when he saw the dog mask looking at him.

Naruto could feel the worry and the sympathy soothing the frayed edges of his mind, the screams of the ghosts relented for a peaceful moment. Absentmindedly, the blond boy nuzzled the hand clasping his shoulder and allowed himself to doze off for a second, his tumultuous psyche appeased by the contact.

"Don't fall asleep Maru," chided Dog in a low voice.

Naruto grunted and mumbled something the other ANBU could not catch but nodded and stretched, a wave of regret welling violently within him when the dog-masked girl withdrew her gloved hand. It only took a second before the two ghosts came back. The blond boy winced behind his mask and swallowed a painful lump stuck in his throat.

He so wanted to scream at them to leave him alone but he knew Tiger would punish him for a stupid stunt like that. He was not sorry damn it! They were bad people who had just bought free citizens of the Land of Fire like they were slaves and Naruto and his team could not just allow that. The village could not allow that. Yet they had the gall to look at him with those heinous, accusing eyes.

Naruto shook his head and snarled behind his white and red mask. It was their fault for being weak. Their fault for being surprised. Their fault for falling prey to his blade. They had to deal with it and stop glaring at him!

"Maru!"

Naruto nearly fell from the three he was roosted in when the dry, monotonous whip of Tiger's voice hit him.

"Yes, Sensei." The initiate answered with a crisp salute, finding his balance again.

"You, Cat, and La are going to replace Lizard, Hawk, and Mu to guard our back. Get a move on."

"Yes sir."

A quick gesture dismissed Naruto and the boy darted to the end of the train of citizens who were making slow progress through Rice, trying their best to keep to the shadow of rare trees and the anonymity of unused trails. The blond joined with Cat and fell in line behind the older woman when she signaled for him to follow her. Accompanying them was La, one of the Inuzuka dogs.

In less than a minute, the three had sped away from the column of civilians. Naruto felt himself breathe easier. He felt so exposed, following this gaggle of tired men and women incapable of protecting themselves. They were ninja, predators. As ANBU, they were the apex, skulking in the shadows. They were absolutely not shepherds.

Cat signed a short order and the boy created two shadow clones while the older ANBU was content with simpler, earth replicas. The three teams, the originals keeping La with them, darted away from each other. They began establishing a perimeter around the rear of the convoy, keeping the reassuring cover of small copses of trees.

/LINE BREAK/

Hiruzen Sarutobi stared at one of his most brilliant jonin, undoubtedly the best mind of Konoha, as the man puzzled what his Hokage had just told him into a possible theory.

Shikaku Nara sighed and muttered something the Kage did not hear. "I cannot make sense of it." The jonin commander eventually said, his voice a lazy, stretched drawl. "It does not correspond to his profile."

"I reached the same conclusion."

The Nara rose a tired hand to his face and rubbed his eyes before he allowed the hand to fall, dragging across his visage. "There is something else, Hokage-sama. You know it already, but I cannot understand what you hope from me."

The older man sighed. "I mainly wanted to see if you were of the same opinion as me, Shikaku."

"Well, Danzo is somehow on the move. His isolation was not as complete as we hoped it was. Which could mean too many things as of now to formulate a theory without further leads. The big question is, is he moving alone or not? The sabotage at the Academy points nowhere, as it happened for a long time without being uncovered yet was nonetheless found to be clumsy in its execution."

"We should have discovered it, but we somehow did not," summarized the Hokage, lassitude clearly audible in his voice. "I'm wondering what it means."

"It could mean pretty much anything. If we choose to trust Danzo's established profile, then it was not self-serving and was aimed at the betterment of Konoha."

"Danzo can have a somewhat self-serving vision of the "betterment of Konoha", Shikaku," said the Hokage, reminiscing about something with a grimace.

"While your attempted assassination was a grave offence Hokage-sama, I'm not sure Danzo saw it like that." The Nara drawled. "I remember him being rather convinced of the rightfulness of his actions," the jonin stopped for a second, considering something, "and Inoichi is rather talented at establishing accurate psychological profiles of people." He added as an after-thought, his voice still the same slow drawl.

Hiruzen sighed again and started to prepare his pipe. A minute of contemplative silence followed, both men lost in their own trains of thought. The Hokage had no complaint when Shikaku lit a cigarette of his own just as he lit his pipe. Smoke soon rose in lazy volutes and clouds, covering the men's faces.

"It could be a warning." The older of the two men spoke again. "Our security was lax enough that a bunch of trusted chunin could be manipulated into sabotaging the Academy without anyone being the wiser, with at least one outsider element included in the lot. So, something general."

"Or it could be an attack, and the sabotaging was nothing but a diversion." Shikaku retorted.

"A diversion? But he wanted us to discover…" The Hokage interrupted himself. What good was a diversion if it was so sneaky it wasn't causing the intended trouble? Not for the first time this past month, Hiruzen could feel a raging headache mounting slowly.

"I think we have no choice but to establish Danzo's culpability in this affair, Hokage-sama. As long as there is a doubt about who is involved or not, we could be chasing ghosts, mistake the tree for the forest."

The Hokage gave the jonin a half-tired, half-amused smile. "Which would be rather ironic for Konoha, wouldn't it?"

Shikaku took a long drag from his cigarette. "I suppose so."

"Who would you send to him?"

"He is a sly fox. No less than Ibiki."

"The head of Interrogation himself? Won't that up his guard?"

"I do not believe for a second that his sojourn with the monks made Danzo any more tender than he was, Hokage-sama. The Warhawk always has his guard up."

The Hokage gave a weary, regretful smile. "He does, doesn't he? What about Ibiki's escort?"

"Perfectly loyal shinobi, sufficiently talented with genjutsu. Aoba, Kakashi, Gai."

"All high-level jonin? That's a little bit overkill. And all three of them are busy with their teams."

"The genin can go too. They do not need to be anywhere near Danzo."

"If Danzo is being helped by an accomplice, that would put them in danger."

"The monks are not completely incapable of defending themselves, and they might be genin but they are ninja first." Shikaku answered, his drawl taking a cold edge. "Blood is something they will doubtlessly come to see."

Hiruzen stared at the jonin commander, a mix of surprise and careful consideration shining dimly in his eyes, before he nodded. "You are right of course."

Shikaku sighed and his drawl was this time tainted by slight worry. "I do not rejoice in sending my son and two kids I consider as my nephew and niece in front of potential danger but unfortunately, they carry the symbol of Konoha on them and I cannot treat them as children anymore."

"This damned headband, am I right?" The Hokage muttered, a hint of bitterness may be discernible at the edge of his tone.

Shikaku shrugged. "It might give much but it takes greatly. From all of us."

"That it does. I think I agree with your suggestion, Shikaku. Aoba, Kakashi, Gai, along with their teams, will accompany Ibiki to pay a visit to my old friend. We need to get to the bottom of this affair."

The Nara nodded and sent a sharp glance at his Kage. "I'll keep a part of my mind on it, Hokage-sama."

"I thank you for that. Now go or I do believe you'll be late for your monthly drinking contest with Choza."

Shikaku smirked. "This time for sure…" The Nara mumbled, more for himself than anyone else.

"I doubt it but good luck nonetheless." The Hokage smiled and gestured to the commander that he was free to take his leave. It was fortunate the Nara's deer antlers were, among other uses, a fantastic hangover remedy, the jonin would doubtlessly need some in a few hours.

Hiruzen had to admit though, Shikaku had come a long way with alcohol tolerance. Chouza was just three times his weight and an Akimichi. Even Tsunade had difficulties winning against the clan head of the autumn road.

* * *

It had begun as an itch, a grating sensation at the outer edges of his mind, the extreme limits of his perception. The blond had resolutely ignored it, knowing it was nothing more than his two haunting ghosts. But the sensation had changed, taking little by little more and more place at the forefront of his mind. Something was coming, its chakra invading Naruto's senses.

Cat and he had been guarding the rear for two hours already, hopping from bushes to thickets to bushes, when the boy decided to speak to his senior. He could not smell, see, or hear anything yet he knew something was coming.

"Cat, I-"

The female ANBU silenced the boy with a sharp motion of her hand and gestured to stop and listen. Naruto immediately took a sharp breath and held it, focusing on his ears intently. The sun, tinted orange and purple, was setting down slowly westward. It painted the vast, open rice fields in the same colors. Birds were singing and once in a while, the splashing sound of a fish jumping out of water could be heard. At the edge of a copse of short, young trees, the two ANBUs waited.

A minute of stillness crawled past them, the sounds of the countryside muffling whatever Cat was searching for. La whirled and faced an apparently random direction and started growling just as Naruto's ears started twitching. Standing still, the blond faced the same direction as La, tension building up between his shoulder, the clear sensation of being observed making an itch appear at the back of his neck.

Four people, ninja, hundred meters or so. The masked initiate signed to his officer.

Suddenly, the pressure on Naruto's mind changed to a burning sensation and the boy, out of instinct more than a conscious decision, ducked into a roll.

A strange contraption, resembling a pair of scissors, split the air where his head had been just a second ago. The mysterious weapon was attached to the arm of a dark-haired man whose rigorous features were set into a frown. Cat's leg snapped around and the man was sent hurling away from the two ANBU, a sickening, crunching noise indicated cracked bones.

"By the authority of Otogakure and in the name of Rice Country, surrender!" A low voice thundered.

Naruto jumped on his feet and sided with his officer, allowing his peripheral vision to take in the new arrivals. There were four, including a woman, all wearing greyish combat fatigues and the same headband as the ninjas Naruto and his team had dispatched some four days ago. The one with the booming voice looked young, not much older than Naruto. He was towering above his teammates, was as large as an Akimichi, and had the weirdest hair: he was bald save for an orange mohawk and some hair on his temples. He was the apparent leader, despite a face that far from screamed "intelligence".

He did look stupidly mean; Naruto supposed.

"Oto… Gakure?" The blond mumbled, his gaze finding the note on the hostiles' headbands.

Naruto heard Cat curse and he caught her signing him something with the corner of his eyes.

"We weren't aware we found ourselves within the jurisdiction of a ninja village." Cat began, still signing her orders to the boy.

Naruto frowned at Cat's declaration; the operation they were currently conducting was entirely illegal, even if it was about saving abducted civilians, and it took another second to understand the woman was stalling for time.

"It does not interest me. Surrender now and relinquish control of the merchandise." The orange haired, fake Akimichi demanded, impatience clear in his voice.

"I'm afraid that won't be possible." Cat answered slowly, finishing her order on her last word.

"Then die!" The human boulder screamed, and he and his subordinates jumped into action just as Cat opened her right palm and brought it down in a single motion.

Smoke exploded around the ANBU when the pellet hidden in Cat's fingers crashed into the ground. The plan was a go.

Five Narutos exited the smoke in different directions, launching into a mad dash, all followed by a replica of La.

"Kagero, pursue!" The Otogakure leader barked at the lone woman of his team, who sprung at a speed worthy of a jonin.

The smoke was suddenly dissipated when hundreds of wires, thinner even than ninja-grade steel rope, circled around it and captured Naruto. The boy immediately glanced to his right; the fourth and last Oto-nin, a bald, one-eyed man, was keeping the cables taut. The blond grimaced. Two of his clones had already been dissipated by the woman and he had spiders crawling all over him.

Why spiders?

"Good job Jigum-"

The leader could not finish as Cat suddenly erupted from the ground just below the Oto-nin who was keeping Naruto immobilized, seizing his ankles and dragging him inside the earth faster than the man could swear.

In one fluid motion, the man found himself buried in the soil, his throat opened by Cat's kunai and spilling forth blood. Naruto could feel the wires relax around him and the spiders started to skitter around, as if headless, and he immediately escaped his binds, only to kawarimi away from another assault from the man with the scissor-like blade.

"You fucking killed Jigumo!" The dark-haired man screamed, weaving his weapon around madly.

Naruto sent the man a calculative look he knew would not be seen. He winced; two clones were once again dispelled. The woman was a jonin without a doubt and he would not hold his own against her, not alone. He noticed Cat engage the leader in a clang of steel, chokuto against kunai, without shifting his focus.

His awareness lessons with Tiger were currently awesomely paying off.

'Bruised sides on the right, if not broken. Breathing ragged but no blood; lung is undamaged. Left side guarded by weapon, blades look powerful, no use risking losing the chokuto,' Naruto analyzed at the speed of thought. 'One obvious weakness. Good.'

It did not mean he would overly target it, but the enemy would seek to guard it. Which meant he would lower his awareness somewhere else. His blood started to pump wildly, and the beating of his heart echoed in his ears. Naruto smiled.

"Let's dance."

With a single push of his legs, the boy appeared in front of the man who thrust at his head with deadly accuracy, forcing the masked blond to bend backward. Naruto's arm unfurled like a whip and a kunai hurled toward the man's front leg and sunk into the flesh. Not as deep as the blond had hoped.

The Oto-nin grunted and simply swept at him vertically with the blunt side of the blade. The boy sidestepped, leaning heavily on his right leg just as his left shot upward, impacting fragile thoracic bones with force despite his unbalance. The heavy blades missed his neck by an inch, crashing on the reinforced porcelain of his mask instead, rattling his skull, cracking the reinforced material. The satisfying snap of ribs breaking echoed, but Naruto lost no time confirming the effect of his assault, using the reactive force from his own blow to whirl on his hands back to a standing position.

"You little shit." The man coughed aggressively, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, his hand grasping his right side.

The boy did not answer, steadied himself with a deep breath, and grimaced when his last clone was wiped away by the woman. He needed to finish his fight fast. He took a second to ensure Cat was still busy with the leader and blinked away some of the burning sweat trickling in his eyes.

The boy took a shaky step and immediately jumped back to avoid his opponent's furious charge. The two articulated blades nearly snapped around his neck, violently cutting through the protective balaclava instead and ripping across his mask. Blood started to flow from a cut one blade had just opened on Naruto's head, soaking his shortened hair and the cloth of his headgear.

Naruto stumbled back and sped through hand-signs, firing three Air Bullets at the man before cracking a grey pellet and disappearing in a massive plume of smoke. The Oto-nin lost no time and jumped backward, dodging the hastily thrown jutsu, hurling a few kunai inside the ash-grey cloud.

Two ANBUs exited the cover, kunai drawn, as the smoke slowly dissipated behind them. Pressing the advantage of their number, the Narutos drove the man away, forcing him to recoil in front of their assault.

The Oto-nin did not notice the otherworldly shadow stalking nearby. The dull pain of his broken ribs, the constant pressure exerted by his two opponents, the slow-mounting frustration at being unable to touch them, the warping genjutsu; all of it distorted his senses or kept them busy. As a result, he was too busy to react when a kunai suddenly appeared and struck his throat. The gardening tool bit into the flesh, the edges severing and piercing everything vital it could find, digging inside the skull, scraping at the bone.

Naruto instantly replaced himself with one of his clones when the scissor blade snapped shut, exactly where his arm had been a moment ago, dispelling the replica. The man had had no idea his death was coming yet by sheer instinct, he had positioned his blade to cut Naruto's arm clean off.

By doing so, he had also offered the two clones a wide opening that the replicas had mercilessly exploited, if the two kunai respectively piercing the man's right lung and left kidney were any indication. The one clone left crouched and plunged another kunai in the man's temple, ending his suffering and his life.

Naruto felt a cold sweat trickle down his spine and merge with the lukewarm blood that was soaking his neck as he looked at his right arm, which he had just nearly lost. His stomach churned and his chakra fluctuated violently, causing the boy to lose his grasp on the dissimulation jutsu he had used to get to his opponent.

Mouth dry, the boy swallowed. In fact, if the deep scratch on his forearm guard was any indication, his substitution had come barely on time. The blond flexed his fingers as if to check they were still indeed attached to him before he turned to the fight of his leader with the enemy officer.

The Oto-nin was far from slow despite his massive frame and he had an extended reach but Cat's chokuto negated the last point and she was faster than the man anyway. He was already sporting numerous cuts on any parts of his body that was exposed.

Wordlessly, Naruto observed as Cat jumped back and moved her blade in a circular motion around her. Fascinated, the boy could only stare as hazy, ethereal images of Cat's chokuto shimmered in sight around the ANBU, like the phases of a growing moon.

In a flicker of motion, the woman moved and struck, blood spraying her blade as it bit under the enemy leader's left arm, searching deep in between his ribs, stabbing his heart to a halt. The illusions died slowly, like a waning moon, and the enormous man fell to his knees.

"Sensei," Naruto whispered urgently, "we need to move, there's-"

A pulse of chakra, vile and toxic silenced Naruto and forced him to recoil, burning the fringes of his mind and gripping at his heart, blinding him momentarily. Behind Cat, the Oto-nin was rising, skin covered by sickly, black markings that were rapidly expanding, turning the skin red around them. The blond screamed soundlessly but could only watch as Cat was violently elbowed on the back of her head, bringing her down in a single strike. The man should have been dying yet he was up and even faster than before.

Naruto was frozen in place when the man's mean, piercing little eyes looked at him. An enormous paw clutched Cat around her neck and the Oto-nin started to squeeze. For a second, the boy thought his heart had momentarily stopped before the enemy's threat rang in his ears.

"If you twitch, I'm breaking her neck."

* * *

Kakashi Hatake, the Copy-nin, the man with a thousand techniques, elite jonin of Konoha, slouched his tall, wiry frame a bit more in his seat. He was spreading himself as lazily and with as little dignity as he could in the booth he was currently occupying deep within the confines of "The Kurusai".

A quiet place he liked very much to visit when he needed a drink to recover from his usual bout of lateness.

The man absentmindedly swirled the lukewarm sake left in his cup, his lone right eye observing the liquid sway without really seeing it. With a sigh, the ninja combed a hand through his spiky, gravity-defying white hair, slightly displacing the slanted headband that was covering his left eye.

The alcohol was less attractive than usual. Actually, alcohol had ceased to bring him comfort long ago, but it was still a nasty habit of his to drink some, if only for the numbness it provided. The jonin searched his pouch he wore at all times for his favorite book but stopped.

Even his usual reading had lost its' luster as of late.

Kakashi was used to feeling down, he had been feeling down since the death of his sensei twelve years ago, but nowadays, he had reached a new low.

He knew why of course. When he had learned that his late sensei's child had survived the fateful night of his birth, Kakashi had sworn to himself he would protect the kid at all cost. Having been denied that by the Sandaime, the last Hatake had then made an oath that he would eventually become the boy's jonin-sensei. That had been mercilessly thwarted by circumstances. Being registered already as a potential sensei though, the high command had judged good to give him a team nonetheless.

The cyclops had thrown a very mild tantrum at the Hokage because he was an elite jonin and he could do that, but decisions had been made and it was too late to do anything about it anyway. Warm sake had been more soothing than ever then, even if it had rapidly lost its power over the course of the following two and a half months.

Now his sensei's son was in danger and Kakashi could do nothing about it. The white-haired ninja knew of course. Nothing was official and he had lost access to the special records a few years ago but he knew.

The boy walked with elegance, a grace he didn't possess in the Academy. Surrounded by an aura of danger, twitching, ready. Somebody had been training him and Kakashi had a very good idea who.

Thinking about it, maybe it was better that way. He had been the death of his two teammates, back during the Third Ninja War. He had been unable to prevent his sensei's demise during the Kyuubi incident. Maybe it was better for the boy to be away from him. Away from "Cursed-Kakashi".

But why this disappointment then? Why did it hurt to see the boy, to be unable to approach him, to know he had nothing to do with his life?

Kakashi sighed again and downed the rest of his sake through his facemask. His eye was drawn back to the piece of scroll unfurled on the table in front of him.

Mission orders.

He had to get himself and his team ready to approach the cave of a predator of the worst kind. For a second, he imagined his genin as mice, hunted by a monstrous hawk.

He snorted humorlessly. Good thing one of his nicknames was "Scarecrow". Maybe that would help a little.

"Kakashi, my friend!" A man thundered suddenly in the white-haired jonin's ear though he probably considered it a whisper, drawing him out of his daydream.

"Shut up!" A random drunk hurled at the man, who had not been quiet enough for the patron's taste.

The Copy-nin turned to face his giant mistake of a comrade Maito Gai. Wearing a green, full-body spandex that probably constituted a crime somewhere in the world and sporting a bowl haircut that should not have been allowed over two very bushy eyebrows, the dark-haired man towered above Kakashi, a radiant smile on his face.

The Hatake considered for a moment the one man he was inclined to call a friend. The man did not wait for Kakashi to invite him to sit himself in the same booth.

"So, my hip rival, did you get the mission orders?"

Kakashi sighed and leaned back in his seat. "Yes, Gai, yes. I received the mission orders."

The Hatake immediately silently swore to himself as the other, spandex-clad jonin gazed at him in utter seriousness, eyebrow raised, forehead creased, and all that jazz.

"Should I assume you are not the real Kakashi?"

The last Hatake winced imperceptibly. This routine was another thing he was getting tired of. "Mh, you said something Gai?"

The spandex-clad jonin smirked before fake tears streamed out of his eyes. "So hip and cool, my rival!" He boomed.

"Will. You. Shut up?!"

Gai waved at the irritated drunk apologetically and turned back to Kakashi, his features set into a mask of worries.

"Is everything alright, Kakashi?"

The Copy-nin threw a long, intense, one-eyed look at his fellow jonin. For a second, the white-haired ninja considered telling the man sitting beside him all that was weighing on his heart before he inaudibly scoffed and gave Gai an eye smile.

"Sure Gai. I'm alright."

The towering jonin furrowed his brow before he exhaled a long sigh. "If you say so, Kakashi." The man crossed his arms on his chest. "You know I'd be happy to-"

"Gai."

"Okay. Okay." The man sighed. "We see each other tomorrow then. What time do you want to depart?"

"An opportunity to push my kids a bit. Let's say eight."

"At eight. Very well, I'll inform my genin." Gai said, standing up and throwing a once-over glance at the Hatake. "You know, maybe talking with someone more responsive than a stone would help with whatever is eating you," offered the green-wearing jonin as a farewell.

Kakashi watched dispassionately as his comrade departed before his lone eye fell once again on his half-empty cup. Maybe he had to try something stronger than sake? Maybe he ought to try a shot of those famed Earth Country whisky? There was more alcohol in the amber colored liquor and with a bit of luck, it would help him forget the pain again rather than just dull it.

The Hatake lazily waved toward a waiter who approached him immediately. The advantages of being a well-paying regular, the jonin supposed.

"I'll have a glass of this Earth Country Old Malt that Juntei keeps bragging about."

"Sure sir, right away."

Not a minute later, the waiter was back with a large glass containing not even an inch of amber liquid and presented it to Kakashi. The Hatake sniffed the content and gave a self-satisfied smile.

That would do. That would do perfectly. In a single sip, the whisky disappeared behind the jonin's face mask, burning his throat, spreading fake warmth, numbing his awareness, and killing his brain. Delicious.

"Bring the whole bottle."

"R-right sir, back in a minute."

* * *

Naruto slowly rose his hands above his head and dropped the kunai he was still holding. The enemy commander gave him a satisfied smirk.

"Good. Now kneel, you piece of t-"

The Oto-nin screamed as a deadly precise Air Bullet pierced his wrist, nearly sawing it off, and dropped his hostage. Naruto sprung forward and meant to catch Cat's unconscious body when the memories of his one last clone -the one who had fired the Air Bullet from the side- brutally came back to him.

The blond suddenly had the feeling a fully loaded, speeding cart colliding into him. Pain exploded on the left side of his chest as he was blindsided by the returned female jonin.

Skidding away from the trees and into a rice paddy, the boy collected himself the best he could, as fast as he could. 'Alright, it hurts less than the training dummy,' he thought through the haze of pain.

The light padding of his armor had absorbed part of the shock and being repeatedly beaten during his training had made him resilient to pain. Overall, Naruto's brain sent him satisfied signs, though the pain still sucked.

Righting himself, the initiate barely had the time to raise his guard before he found himself at the receiving end of a furious haymaker of the enemy jonin. With a grunt and protesting bone, the blond absorbed the blow and fell in a balanced stance.

Just in time to defend as fast as he could against a rain of strikes that all promised death. Right, left, high, low, with her fists, her knee, her feet, and her elbows, the frail-looking woman assaulted him as if in a frenzy, quickly breaking his defense. A hook caught his jaw, a hammer strike crashed against his temple, an elbow struck his ear, a hand smashed into his windpipe, two fists planted themselves in his fragile left side, hitting his stomach and spleen mercilessly. The hail left him bloody, bruised, and barely conscious when he was finally kicked away like an insignificant puppy, some of his ribs giving up on him.

With a large splash of water, Naruto crashed in a paddy in a tangled heap.

"You killed Jigumo and Kamikiri. You'll pay with your life."

The blond could not hear the approaching woman. The world was whirling strangely around him. Everything was dark, his ears were whistling, and he felt like one giant bruise. His body felt weak and hurt so much, it felt like the strength had been robbed from it. The worse was the water that was getting in the way of his breathing. It tasted horrible and it kept precious air from reaching his suffocated lungs.

Claws of panic sunk in the blond's heart. He was drowning; he was drowning, and it was very unpleasant. Naruto flailed his arms, weakly at first, then with more and more strength as it became harder to keep awake.

"You ninja seem fond of cutting your enemy's throat, so you'll suffer the same fate."

The blond felt someone grab his shoulder and right his body out of the water. Air immediately entered his throat and he coughed desperately, trying his best to feed his lungs the oxygen they needed. Suddenly, he felt his mask ripped from his face, the ceramic breaking under powerful fingers. Weakly, the blue-eyed blond attempted to swat away at the hand that was removing his balaclava. By reflex more than conscious thoughts, Naruto seized a kunai and screamed when his fingers were crushed and broken by a grip of steel.

Finally, his balaclava was torn away, and the shiny metal flashed before his eyes before he felt the blade bite into his flesh. his cries of pain turned into a gurgled wheeze as the knife tore through his throat, severing his vocal cords, his windpipe, and his aorta.

With a splash, Naruto's body fell in the paddy again, blood escaping freely from a large gash across his throat and coloring the water red.

* * *

**AN: Not so cliffy ending. You are all clever enough to know what's coming. Chapter 14 is already being worked on anyway, so I should not leave you hanging for long. I know the rise in tension will cause some of you to eye-roll hard. I would be happy to discuss it in PM.**

**If you find it weird that Kagero obeys Jirobo, it's simple: Jirobo was raised from A to Z by You-know-who, whereas Kagero is more of an indirect ally. Command goes to the loyal soldier rather than the most powerful in this case.**

****To address some concern I honestly find weird: Naruto's hair. Guys, relax, hair grow back. I know what I'm talking about, I have way too much of it. Also, remember that in my story, ANBU have not only a mask but a balaclava and a helmet. Having short hair is a matter of not drowning in your own sweat.****

**Skulls for the Skull Throne, milk for the khorne flakes, and reviews for the author!**


	14. Chapter 14 Give him power

**AN: Our Lord Kyuubi worked extremely fast to beta read that so I could deliver it to you. Not only did he polish the occasional grammatical atrocities, but he also ironed out some details and as everybody knows, it is precisely there that the devil hides. As for me, I would like to thank you all for the overwhelmingly positive response to chapter 13. Enjoy!**

* * *

Dying was not so much painful as it was unpleasant. Very, very unpleasant. And slow. Naruto could hear his heart pumping blood out in the open, quickening his asphyxiation, hastening his doom. The blond could not breathe anymore, his attempts at supplying oxygen to his lungs filling them with red life liquid and resulting in gurgling sounds and blood red bubbles escaping the gash on his throat. His brain was shutting down quickly and the pain was made distant by the heavy, tar-like cloud of darkness weighing on his mind and quickly eradicating his consciousness.

He had no strength left in him to protest his fate -being beaten to a pulp and then having his neck slashed open did that to a man- and the numbness seeping into his very bones was relaxing anyway, keeping him calm about his incoming end. Funny how he had been worried about dying back in Konoha, afraid of it even, before leaving for the mission. Death was nothing but appeased silence. Expectation and reality were really two different things.

He was maybe a little bit angry at being left to die in Rice Country -one more reason to despise this shitty place- after barely three months as a ninja but all in all, he felt too tired to muster any real heat.

He knew full well there was nothing he could do about it anyway. He had lost too much blood, and no one was there to save him. He had "killed" the training golem enough time to know that and had confirmed it first-hand with his three first and last kills: a slit throat was unforgiving when left alone for too long. The "no return" time limit had since long been exceeded in his case. He had given his best but the enemy jonin had utterly overwhelmed him, leaving him no chance. That was the reality of a shinobi fight: they were all-out murder matches from the start, not a show where the action would slowly ramp up in intensity.

There was no audience to please, no noble to distract. Only an enemy whose heart had to be stopped with extreme prejudice. Naruto had given his best shot, but it was his heart that was inexorably stopping right now. He supposed that was part of the rules. The shinobi life was one of giving death and receiving it. He was dying a warrior's death, as was fitting.

Death was not such a horrifying possibility anyway. The process was unpleasant, yes, but there were good sides to it. First of all, he would not be missed; no one would be saddened or cry for him and that was a relief, if slightly frightening. Then maybe he would get to meet his family? That was not such a bad thought.

What about Jijie and Ayame, though? What about Iruka and Teuchi? What about Konohamaru and Ichiro? A small functional part of his otherwise foggy, dying brain asked himself, needling him uncomfortably.

What about Tiger and Dog?

Alright, he would be missed a little bit. He found that oddly comforting; he would be remembered, even at the cost of causing others pain. It meant that he was not alone.

Also, not being able to see Konohamaru get his headband and taste Ayame's super ramen was a shame. He would also have liked to die a full-fledged ANBU, to leave the impure lands a member of the family but such was life he supposed. He hoped he would still be remembered within the halls under the Hokage Mountain. That was all that mattered.

He did not have too many regrets and that was a good thing. At least, he was leaving after making up with his grandfather. That would have sucked big time if he had not reconciled with the Hokage not too long ago.

What about Cat?

Pain came back at the thought of Cat and cleared his mind for a second. The woman had been captured and who knew what horror she would have to endure. Ninja were not tender with captured enemies.

The last figment of his fluttering reason quickly appeased him. It was terrible and he was angry about it but with his broken body and his throat cut open, he could not do shit about it. He was dead. Tiger and Dog would have to chase after them. The fat, mean looking one was already hurt badly anyway, and Naruto had no doubt the woman would fall to the might of his teachers.

That being said, the knock-off Akimichi had seemingly risen from death so maybe he was not in that much of a bad shape. Bah, Tiger was a badass shinobi. He would slaughter the two of them and Cat would be safe. Plus, Naruto was quite sure he had left the lady with a rather mean parting gift.

That would teach her to break his fingers and cut herself on his kunai. Whatever worked after all, as Tiger would say, and poison definitely did work. This compound especially was a mean one: hidden within a haemophilic agent that stuck to the enemy's blood and with a delayed release triggered by specific chemicals found in the brain. A nasty piece of work devised by the ANBU labs.

He had played the part perfectly, fumbling around his pouch like he had been hit too hard to think clearly, but he had not taken this very specific kunai by mistake. The kunoichi had been fooled though, believing it to be his attempt to a last stand. Heh. The bitch was going down with him.

Or maybe Cat was already dead, and he was worrying over nothing. Whatever the situation, he was out of the race anyway. He just hoped La had made it out alive. The dog had not asked anything.

Content with his conclusion, Naruto allowed his brain to continue dying from the lack of oxygen and immersed his consciousness in the flow of his chakra. He was dead and he would enjoy the ride one last time. The blond relished the familiar feeling of the rushing flow, even if he could feel it slowly dying down.

One last ride and he would go. At least, he was not fussing about it like the two weaklings he had terminated four days ago. Departing with dignity, that was important too. He was definitely not turning into a ghostly cry-baby. With a smile on his face, the blond gurgled one last time.

"That punk took five minutes to die. What a fucking roach." The Not-Akimichi said angrily, looking at the corpse of the young ANBU and spitting a glob of blood, saliva, and other fluids at it before kicking it squarely in the ribs.

"Stop moving Jirobo-sama. I cannot heal you correctly if you do not stand still and you'll risk losing your hand." The jonin answered dispassionately.

"Tch! This little shit. Shame you didn't keep him alive though; two hostages are better than one." Jirobo grunted, glaring once more at the blond cadaver.

"I apologize for that Jirobo-sama. I let-"

"Yeah, yeah whatever. We can't stay for long so hurry up!"

"I made sure any and all their attempt at contacting the rest of their team was suppressed. We do have some delay before they realized something is wrong with their rear-guard, Jirobo-sama."

"Just shut up and hurry up," growled the man in retort.

"Yes, Jirobo-sama."

Silence fell around the two standing Oto-nin and their restrained prisoner, disturbed only by the humming of Iryo-jutsu and the chirping of various birds. A cool breeze whirled past them and a minute went by before the woman suddenly wobbled. The healing chakra sheathing her hands flickered out and she breathed in heavily.

"What is it, Kagero?"

"I do not know, Jirobo-sama. I feel… Weak. Lightheaded."

The fake Akimichi threw a glance at his wrist and, judging it sufficiently repaired for now, turned to his subordinate. "Poison?"

"Possible, Jirobo-sama." That was only fair; she herself had poisoned the boy after all. A powerful opioid-based substance had invaded his body in a matter of seconds and had lowered his inhibitions. She had topped that with a genjutsu. There was nothing worse and messier than a panicked man dying from having his throat opened so making death welcoming was actually a good way to go when murdering someone. It avoided needless shouting and thrashing. Plus, opioids were never considered when building poison resistance: they were the basis for too many painkillers.

"Take care of yourself. I'll carry the prisoner. we leave in a minute."

With a nod, the woman gathered her thoughts as best as she could and, after a series of hand-signs, healing chakra shone and hummed once again around her hands. She was dizzy, nauseous, and her heart was beating madly in her chest as if she had exhausted herself. Dark spots pulsed in front of her, obscuring her vision. Kagero inhaled deeply but the feeling of suffocation did not leave her.

She knew what she had been poisoned with. Cyanide was a bitch. To makes things worse, somehow, it had been delivered to her brain already despite her built up resilience to it. She turned toward the smiling corpse of the young blond and scowled. This rat had distracted Jigumo to his death and killed Kamikiri. There was no way he was taking her too.

With a murderous glare that the dead ANBU ignored, the woman sat in seiza, slowing down her heartbeat and scanning herself with her iryojutsu.

It was then that the world exploded.

* * *

Dog knew something had gone wrong. She had nothing to base the thought on but the fact that the hair on her arms was standing and her spine was constantly run through by an electric shiver were just two of many signs which could well have been hard facts to her.

A ninja had to trust their instincts and the Inuzuka had the best instincts of all.

When La barged from their rear, alerting his brother Hai and Dog, the Inuzuka operator realized that in the mix of emotions she was experiencing, surprise was ranked low.

Worry, on the other hand, was off the charts, especially when her eyes zeroed on the wound on her canine companion. The veterinarian in her cried a tear at the sight: the left hind leg of the dog was a bloody mess. With a whine, the exhausted dog came crashing down two meters away from her.

Hurryingly and ignoring the hushed whispers of the civilians behind her, Dog closed the short distance while speeding through hand signs, and as she kneeled near her companion, her hands glowed a soothing, pale green. La groaned and whined something she could not hear.

"Shhh, boy. It's gonna be okay." Dog interrupted the wounded animal, her jutsu sending a flow of feelings and impressions to her brain, a vague canvas of what the wound truly was like, a puzzle she had to piece together to get a clear view of what had to be done.

La stubbornly whined again and nudged her elbow, begging for her attention. Dog sighed and broke the flow of her chakra, interrupting the iryojutsu.

"I need to heal you-"

The dog interrupted her, growling this time, before yapping two low barks on two very precise notes and moving both his snout and his right front paw in an established pattern as his ears flattened on top of his skull.

Dog felt herself go pale. She whirled around and stood up just as her officer joined her.

"Maru and Cat have been attacked. There is a powerful jonin among them. They are in danger." Dog informed the man before he could ask any question.

Tiger nodded. "Fix La first and foremost. I'm going first as recon, join me when you can."

"Sergeant-"

"You have your orders. See you later." The ANBU officer turned to face the civilians. "Do not move from here."

Before Dog could add anything, Tiger disappeared in a powerful flicker, leaving behind only a trail of vapour and some dancing leaves. The Inuzuka clicked her tongue in annoyance and turned to the wounded dog, who pointed his black nose toward its wounded leg.

"Yes, yes, let me fix that."

Speeding through hand signs again and sheathing her hands in healing chakra, the ANBU kneeled again, preparing herself for the mad task of repairing damaged living tissue while in the wild, without any of the auxiliary machinery any modern hospital had, and at night.

A piece of cake for a tested field surgeon, of course. Reaching into her satchel, the Inuzuka took a waxing band and a vial full of powerful antiseptic. Eliciting a pained whine when she mercilessly did away with the fur around the wound, she poured a good half of the disinfectant on the bleeding flesh. No use allowing the wound to become a festering playground for infections.

The rudimentary pre-op done and over with, Dog took a powerful, steadying breath and slowly, agonizingly slowly, ran through two different sets of one-handed hand seals, sparkling with two different iryojutsu. Sweat pearling on her brow, she approached the wound with her hands.

This was the reason medical ninjutsu was so entirely ignored by a large part of the ninja population. The difficulty did not come only in the form of the insane amount of knowledge necessary to properly treat various ailments. It truly came with the necessity to maintain two jutsu simultaneously over an extended period of time, which required a level of chakra control many considered to be simply insane.

One jutsu for constant diagnosis, the other for actual tissues manipulation and regeneration. The iryonin had to maintain and work with two activated jutsu simultaneously, one that was desperately trying to scramble their brain with information about the wound, the other that was desperately trying to scramble the wound by bypassing their brain.

There was also no faster way to make everything worse. A failed iryojutsu could turn a benign scratch into a life-threatening mess. On the other hand, there was no faster way to heal on the battlefield. A ninja on death's door could literally be brought back to battle-ready by a sufficiently experienced medic-nin. Or so did the rumours go.

Dog exhaled and bit her lower lip. Good thing she was a talented medic. She had yet to fail an op, even in the field.

The cut was deep and had severed many layers of muscle, countless little blood vessels, and had even opened the artery. Not completely, thankfully, or La would have never survived long enough to join the convoy. Not losing a second more, Dog carefully but steadily sewed the two sides of the cut artery back together, flesh mending itself under the impulse of the jutsu, the process guided, accelerated, and nourished by her chakra.

Dog allowed herself a relieved breath once the artery was closed. She had just bought herself a bit of time. For a second, she racked her brain, searching how the hind leg of a dog worked, so as not to reconstruct anything the wrong way, before she inhaled again, ironing her resolve.

With the same care, Dog slowly put the separated muscle together, reconstituting strings of cells, reattaching fibres of myosin and actin on a molecular level, weaving the small blood vessels around, re-implanting nerves where they belonged. Sweat was dripping from her forehead, making her balaclava a damp mess, but she paid it no mind.

Lastly came the skin. Dog had to remove what blood had already dried or worse, coagulated, and reattach the two sides layer by layer. Who knew that skin was such a complicated organ?

With a sigh of satisfied exhaustion, Dog fell on her behind, propped against her elbows, the green glow on her hands dispersing. La whined and inclined his head gratefully.

"You're welcome buddy," answered the ANBU with a chuckle before a groan escaped her lips, the urgency of the entire situation coming back to her and needling her in the side. "Shit. Now let's go. La, stay, I'm no Tsunade."

The teenage girl rolled on her belly before she pushed firmly on both her hands and feet, jumping to a standing position and breathing in deeply. With a swift movement, she took her special whistle and blew a specific code, eliciting an annoyed groan from La.

"Don't move from here!" She repeated her superior's order to the gaggle of men and women standing behind her.

Locking her hand in the ram seal, Dog gathered the chakra to flicker away.

It was then that the world exploded.

* * *

Tiger was making good speed, intellectually, he knew it. Yet he felt as slow as a freshly graduated genin. The rear guard had been compromised, two of his teammates were under attack, and the fact one of the Haimura brothers was injured meant the opponents were numerous and powerful enough to keep both Cat and Maru busy.

While Maru was still a work in progress, Cat was nothing to scoff at, be it up close or from afar. Given that the Inuzuka dogs were easily as fast as jonin when it mattered, it signified one thing: the attackers meant business.

Tiger meant business too, he just had to arrive on time. He could not abandon a member of the family and someone on his way to become part of it. That would be a frustrating waste of an investment, considering how the young boy was shaping up. Maru would make at the very least an excellent ninja and that was without considering what he contained. He was an asset Konoha could not afford to lose.

The shrubberies and undergrowth offered little resistance as the ANBU sped through, careful not to disturb his environment too much. If they were to get out of here, there was no use leaving an easy trail.

His chakra surging powerfully yet under a tight leash, Tiger flickered again, converting raw chakra into nearly pure momentum, adding to his speed by artificially increasing his kinetic energy and waiting for the world to correct the imbalance in the equation by adjusting his velocity.

The trick was not allowing the world to rectify the apparent impossibility by adding mass. That was definitely a recipe for a horrible accident.

Despite his vision tunnelling and the wind rushing like a torrent past his ears, Tiger could see the place where the battle had taken place; still out of his reach but closing insanely fast. The ANBU relaxed his chakra and allowed it to pulse outward, this time syphoning his momentum in a wave of rapidly dispersing heat and slowing him to a stop.

The ANBU felt his heart hastening his pace when his eyes took in the sight of a downed Cat tied down by some kind of anthropomorphic monster. His heart stopped for a second altogether when he spotted a young-looking woman sitting near the lifeless body of his youngest subordinate.

Ruthlessly, Tiger squashed the maelstrom of emotion that was welling inside him and sped through hand signs.

It was then that the world exploded.

* * *

The blond boy awoke washed ashore on hard, uncomfortable ground. Opening his eyes slowly, he took in his immediate environment in a calculative gaze, as he had been taught so long ago. He was in a gigantic room of decaying concrete, so large and high he could not make out the end of it. There was no window in sight nor any source of light, yet the place was illuminated barely by a sickly orange glow. It reminded the boy of sepia pictures he had seen somewhere.

Groggily, the blond slowly stood and looked around him. He had no idea where he was, but he did not like it. His mind was foggy and his memories unclear. Had he been captured? Was he in some kind of dungeon? If so, the owner certainly had a peculiar conception of what a cell had to be like.

For that matter, who was he? What was he doing here? Did he have any business being taken prisoner in the first place?

The blond massaged his eyes for a few seconds, desperately trying to gather himself. He felt weak, weaker than he had ever felt. If he was honest, a gust of wind could have knocked him over. He felt fickle, wobbly, unreal. As if his body was lacking consistency. The boy shuddered and took a step forward.

He had glanced around and behind him was nothing but darkness. In front of him was an even less reassuring sight: towering pillars of black steel that apparently formed a prison. The blond did not really want to go anywhere near the cage, but he had literally no other alternatives. Swallowing his hesitation, the boy marched forth, trudging against the shallow water that seemed to stagnate everywhere in the room.

Maybe he would meet someone, anyone, to tell him where he was.

The boy quickly lost all notion of time. The light was unchanging, he did not tire more than he already was, yet the cage did not seem to want to get closer to him. After what felt like hours but could have been minutes, the blond eventually made out a change in the monotony of the colossal iron bars. Two were joined as if to mimic a monstrous door. The only lock the boy could discern was a tiny, ridiculous piece of paper marked with the word "seal".

The blond fell when a thunderous gust of wind knocked him off his feet. He curved his body in a foetal position as the sound of two rocks grinding against each other hurt his ears and his skin burned under the heat of the storm. As suddenly as it had begun, the wind ceased. The blond carefully, silently, stood, freezing at the barest sound he could hear. Only to be knocked forward this time, as the wind rushed past him once again from behind. This time however, the blond could feel the air being sucked toward the cage.

His cerulean eyes widened and his breath quickened as the boy desperately tried to drag himself backwards, to escape whatever horror was waiting for him inside the cage. His feeble arms betrayed him and the blond crumbled on his back in the water. Immediately propping himself on his elbow, the boy stilled, squashing his ragged breathing as blood mixed with adrenaline started to drum furiously in his ears, and peered at the darkness within the cage.

The darkness chose to stare back.

One eye, one orb of raging flames cut in its middle by a black slit of void, opened and pierced through the blond, laying him bare. And Naruto remembered.

He had been here already. He had seen the Eye. The Eye had already seen through him. And the Eye had sent him back after a greeting. The Eye had acknowledged Naruto's presence and chased him away after it had seen what it had to see.

The blond could not breathe anymore, nor could he will his body to move. Entranced, captive of the Eye, he would not do anything if it was not at its bidding. He simply could not. So, Naruto waited for the Eye to send him away like it had done last time.

"Salutations, Son of Man."

The Voice blasted against the boy's psyche, crumbling the makeshift defences of his self and echoing in the centre of his very being. Memories surged in the barren field of desolation that was Naruto's mind currently.

He was Naruto Uzumaki. Cat was captured. He was a ninja from Konoha. He liked his Jijie and ramen. He was in ANBU. He had failed his examination. Dragon believed in him. Tiger was the best teacher ever. Konohamaru had entered the Academy. He was the jinchuriki of the Kyuubi.

He was dead.

"Not yet. I can save you." The Voice whispered, allowing Naruto to form coherent thoughts without obliterating them.

"Who?" The blond croaked, his throat dry and his lips more so, hoping against what he knew that the Voice was a lie and the Eye an illusion. "Who are you?"

"Why lie to yourself, Son of Man? You know full well who I am."

Of course, the Voice knew. The Eye could see through his lies, could lay bare his very soul, read him. "No… Please, let me go…" Naruto pleaded deliriously. It was not possible. It could not be. The implications were too terrible to envision it.

"Only your imminent demise forced you here and it shall be the prison of your last moments if you do not take the offer I have for you." The Voice whispered sweetly, chilling Naruto to his bones.

"No…" Something welled inside the boy, a bright, passionate wind that made him stand a bit straighter before he crushed ruthlessly. Naruto wanted to refuse the Voice, he wanted to not listen to it. He knew only bad things would come out of it if he listened. But it was too powerful, imposing itself in the centre of his head. From the cage, beyond his notice, dark blood seeped between the bars.

"Do you not wish to belong? Do you not wish acknowledgement?" The Voice asked in a honeyed murmur. "Do you not wish for a family? You who suffered so much alone, do you not long for others?" It questioned soothingly as if understanding Naruto's plight full well. "What kind of brother allows his sister a fate worse than the death you seem so accepting of? What kind of coward?" The Voice pleaded sadly.

"Stop…" The blond nodded without realizing it before he curved himself into a ball, his ears covered to no avail. He could not listen, could not heed the call of temptation. He could not allow himself this weakness. Who knew what would happen if he did? The blood-red liquid bubbled and crawled toward the oblivious boy, willed forth by a sinister purpose.

"Weakness? Is it so wrong to protect those precious to you? Is it so wrong to want the power to do so? Think!" The Voice urged suddenly. "What will they think of you when they realize you abandoned yourself to the Shinigami when you could have saved her? Oh, you shall be so reviled, and this time, it will be entirely justified."

The boy choked. "Why?" Naruto asked in return, tears streaming down his ghostly pale face, not seeing the bubbling, scalding hot liquid defying gravity and whirling slowly around him in a blood tornado of black and red.

"Is it not sufficient that I offer it to you, Son of Man? Why would my motive matter right now? Your sister is in mortal danger. Take the offered power and save her! Save her before her fate become sealed! Save your family!"

Like the jaw of a predator, the liquid swallowed the boy, eliciting a cry of either pain or ecstasy as his body was dissolved into the sea of nothing. A bout of roaring laughter that could have shaken the earth exploded in the empty hall.

* * *

As Tiger exited the cover of the trees, the world suddenly spasmed around the corpse of his initiate before it exploded in a thundering conflagration. In an instant, water was vaporized into mist, while the rice of the paddies was incinerated into fine dust, the suddenly exposed earth was dried only to be cooked into glass.

The shockwave immediately dispersed the cloud of vapour and sent the kneeling woman careening away, forcing the monster to anchor himself to the ground with chakra as he clutched his neck, and interrupted Tiger's ninjutsu by disrupting his chakra flow as the ANBU ducked back under the cover of the grove he had just exited. Inhumanly potent chakra filled the battlefield and Tiger could feel his breathing itch in his throat.

Tiger could not keep a curse from escaping his lips as he fought to regain both his cool and control over his lungs. He knew what was happening. He had to get Cat out of here before it turned into a slaughter zone. Without further hesitation, the ANBU prepared to dash toward the fat, vaguely human looking, reddish mutant that was holding his soldier prisoner.

His screaming instincts stayed his plan and Tiger glanced at where Naruto's corpse had been laying.

On all fours, covered in a layer of bubbling, burning, smoking chakra so thick he was barely visible underneath it, was Naruto. His eyes were turned red, like those of a beast, his visage deformed into a snarl. With a flex of chakra so powerful it once again disrupted Tiger's own flow, the jinchuriki body slammed into the slowly standing kunoichi, sending her body flying dozens of meters away.

Tiger could not contain a minute wince. Even from a distance, he could hear the bones splintering into powder, the lungs caving in, the spleen being turned into a paste. If the blow had not killed the kunoichi on the spot, the ANBU knew for a fact that she did not have long to live anymore.

The ANBU did not think further about the fate of his enemy. Hastening the moulding of his chakra with a ram seal, he breathed in for a flicker. A third burst of chakra threw him slightly off balance and messed up the moulding of his inner energy. With a frown, Tiger righted himself instantly. These constant interruptions were getting old!

The man leapt backwards immediately after when the flaming body of his initiate was sent away by a monstrous blow. Turning his head right, Tiger saw the kunoichi standing, her fist extended.

She had the bleak skin tone of someone already dead, one of her eyes was not seeing, and a copious amount of blood was dripping from her mouth. Tiger was quite certain that the ninjutsu she had just activated that was giving her visible wings akin to those of a butterfly, was a sacrificial one, burning through her chakra faster than fire burnt through oil. She had maybe a minute, probably less.

Enraged, the jinchuriki boy snarled low and pulsed his chakra. The ground where the kunoichi had been standing exploded in a shower of boiling water, upturned earth, and burnt rice plants. Under his mask, Tiger felt his eyes widen. Maru had been fast, incredibly so, but the enemy ninja had been even faster. In fact, if the man was not so certain it was nearly impossible, he could have sworn she had teleported.

Swallowing hard, the ANBU tore his focus away from a fight that was not his and reported his attention where it was needed. Only to curse out loud when his eyes tracked his target escaping. The other Oto-nin had apparently no qualm leaving his comrade fight alone. For another second, Tiger felt hesitation grip at his insides.

Could he afford to let an enraged jinchuriki go wild here?

How much did he trust Maru -Naruto- to assert his control back over his body?

Steel hardened his eyes and straightened his spine. With a flex of his chakra, the ANBU flickered after his target. Naruto would do fine. It was Cat who needed him the most right now.

* * *

He felt good. After being dead, he supposed he could only feel better but he had not expected coming back to life would feel this good. There were a few hitches here and there of course. His breathing was laboured, his lungs felt obstructed, and he was pretty certain that he lacked a good amount of blood but the chakra coursing through his tenketsu made all those discomforts forgettable before the sheer power at his disposal.

When the dark red chakra of the Fox pulsed through him, he could suddenly feel the world like he had never before. He could trace each of the droplets of water he had vaporized. He could hear the rice under him mature in an instant only to burst into flame under the heat. He could feel the soil melt only to cool into glass when fresh air was sucked back by the depression.

For a second, he allowed nature to brush each of his senses. Above him, he could taste the shimmering of the stars. Around him, he could hear the plants breath. Fleeing him, he could feel the animals running in a frenzied panic. Below, he could see the earth move and spin. For a second, he was the master of the world. There was so much he could accomplish with this might within his hands.

He instantly recognized two familiar chakra signatures next to him, along with two he did not know. Did not like. Did not want. The boy's eyes snapped open, each a furnace of smouldering flames, and narrowed when they lay on a frail looking woman with blue hair. That was it. The one who had hurt him. The one who had killed him.

The one who would hurt Cat. The one who needed to die. Anger welled from within him and flooded his reason, turning into a burning rage first, to raging hatred then.

The jinchuriki bodied the kunoichi into oblivion, sensing her body fail under his furious charge.

He was slightly surprised when he took a punch in return before it fuelled his fury. She. Needed. To. Die!

Snarling, he eyed his enemy. She was broken already, on her last leg. He could feel each of the bones he had snapped. He could sense the blood gushing from ruptured organs and vessels. He could taste her chakra petering out, gathered in one last technique. In a few breaths, she would drop dead.

The jinchuriki snarled. He would tear her apart first. She would die by his hands.

In a flash of chakra, he was right next to her, ready to slice her into ribbons. His left claw met nothing but air when the woman teleported. For an instant so short it could have been nothing but an illusion, she had exited his senses only to enter them again, someplace else.

The boy whirled and leapt. Fast as lightning, he tore through nothing. Mounting frustration fueled the roaring fire of the jinchuriki's uncontrolled rage and the blond jumped again, only to miss in a repeat of his two other attempts.

In a haze of fury, the jinchuriki roared a challenge, the animalistic shout broken by his lacerated throat, flexing a massive amount of chakra.

Whether by intent or not, the wave of almost solid energy disrupted the kunoichi's wings and when the bubbling claw of the man-monster reached her, death was instantaneous, messy, and scattered.

Burnt flesh and boiled blood fell in a macabre rain, feeding the ground a red tribute, covering the jinchuriki in a shower of gore. The hunter lost no time to hurl his victory at the heavens. He whirled around as a new presence invaded his senses.

Focusing his attention on the new arrival, he recognized the chakra. She was a female, young, smelled like dog, fought like one. He sensed fear, controlled, leashed, but it could not escape him. She would be so easy to hunt, so pleasant to hurt, so satisfying to kill.

Why not? Why not take advantage of it? When he had all this power. When he was obviously so superior to her. When he was obviously a predator whereas she was nothing but prey. She needed a lesson and he would be the one to teach.

She had been mean to him. Disrespectful. Uninterested. She had refused to grace him with a look.

Eye narrowed and fangs bared in a snarl, the jinchuriki stalked on all fours toward the pathetic human.

"Hey Maru, it's me… Dog." The ANBU greeted in a hesitant voice.

She barely rolled out of the way of the sweeping blow aimed at her, her cloak cut into ribbons by the razor sharp claw.

"Naruto!" Dog cried in alarm.

* * *

Tiger exited his body flicker and ducked under a punch that should have taken him just below the chin. In less than a second, his eyes seized his opponent.

The man was tall and large, overly so, his skin was red and covered with warts, his hair was cascading onto his shoulders and neck, leaving his forehead naked. Small, beady eyes, their sclera dark grey and their pupils yellow, were riveted on him. The ninja was breathing hard and the ANBU noticed without problem the bloody stain under his left arm.

Cat had wounded him there but not enough apparently.

Another punch was hurled at him, a punch Tiger immediately slapped away, in a carefully dosed mix of a block and a deflection. The ANBU frowned slightly. His opponent was packing a lot of steam if nothing else. It would be needlessly dangerous to take him head-on.

Swaying around an attempt to grapple him, Tiger punished the man with a powerful slap on his ear and one elbow below the chin before he jumped away, already speeding through hand signs.

Fighting was not a priority objective. Cat, slumped on the Oto-nin's shoulder, was.

A clone erupted from the earth, closing in on the colossus with a leap as Tiger started circling around him.

The Oto-nin lost no time and manhandled his hostage down his arm, threatening her with a kunai.

"Fuck off and she lives!" The reddish man growled.

Tiger silently swore. He expected the situation to turn like that and it was not something he had time to solve.

"Leave her here and I won't give chase." The ANBU offered in return in a drawl.

"I'm not the one with a monster to put down," snarled the man. "My conditions, take or leave."

"Leaving you with a hostage is unacceptable." Tiger retorted in his monotone.

"Too bad for you, sucker."

It was at this moment a deafening roar took both men by surprise, Tiger's earth clone crumbling under the wave or chakra, the red man hollering in pain. The ANBU lost no time though and sped again through his hand seals, thanking his lucky stars and his initiate. Chakra moulded, focus crystallized, Tiger hit the ground with an open palm.

Two clones grew from the soil again, this time close enough to the red man that they immediately grappled his arms, forcing them in a lock, one of the clones slapping the kunai away while the other stabbed at the wound on the opponent's left side.

With a chakra enhanced leap, Tiger appeared in front of the Oto-nin only to jump back with Cat just as, in a show of strength he hadn't expected, his opponent broke the hold of the two clones.

With a whispered apology, Tiger threw Cat away and once again flared his chakra through hand signs. From his already crumbling clones, thorny vines the size of his leg grew to anchor themselves in the ground as they snaked around the man, holding him in place firmly.

Whirling toward Cat, the ANBU withdrew a kunai and severed the binds. Before he could remove the piece of cloth fastened around her mouth, her eyes shone with a pattern and Tiger hauled her in a last-second flicker, avoiding a punch.

The two ANBU crashed into the water of a paddy, Tiger losing no time to free Cat completely. With a muttered "thanks", the woman leapt on her feet.

The red man, cut and bleeding, hollered in rage at the sight of the two enemies facing him and whirled around and away in a body flicker of his own.

Just as they were ready to give chase, a desperate cry halted the two ANBU in their tracks.

* * *

Naruto did not know where he was. All around him, it was only a vast expense of nothing, coloured a blood red by the ground where he was standing. He was not particularly worried about it though. There could be nothing fundamentally wrong with the place he was in. He was not sure why it was so either. Maybe it was the feeling of floating on clouds made of the fluffiest cotton? He was warm, he was relaxed, he was comfortable.

He could feel the world existing just there, around him but also right in his palm. Naruto giggled; he had to be careful not to crush the world. He had so much power pulsing and coursing his veins now, a twitch would be enough. A twitch and the world would end.

Why not?

Naruto giggled. No, he had to keep the world existing. What would Jijie, Konohamaru, and the rest say if he were to end the Earth?

The boy laughed heartily. Jijie would certainly become red-faced in anger. Like the time he had transformed into a naked woman to steal his hat. Yeah. Naruto did not really want to face that again.

Why not though? He had so much power, his Jijie would not be able to protest if he decided to do it.

Just a twitch of his hand. A snap of his fingers.

Suddenly, his peace was disturbed. In front of him, a blue-haired woman had appeared. Naruto could not see her well, as if a veil had fallen over his eyes. She looked half dead, yet she had the gall to glare at him, that he could see perfectly well. Naruto frowned before he pointed at her, discontent painted all over his face.

"Hey! You killed me!" The blond boy exclaimed, his voice a mix of anger and indignation.

How could she? She had killed him and then she invaded his place, glaring at him? He hated to be glared at. How dare she? How dare they? He had enough power to rule over their life and they dared show disrespect?

Naruto snarled. He was going to show them. He was going to show every last one of them the cost of their disdain! Starting with her!

All it took was a twitch of his finger and the world shook. From the sea of blood he was standing upon, beyond the veil, a dark, bubbling, burning shape emerged, and stalked forward, slowly taking the form of a monstrous, bizarre fox.

Naruto observed as the fox hunted the blue-haired woman, missing her thrice only to rip her into shred after its fourth attempt. With a satisfied smile, Naruto readied himself to enjoy listening to the world existing under his fingers when a new figure shimmered into view. Huffing in annoyance, the boy turned around and found himself looking at a masked individual, wearing a mask vaguely resembling a dog.

The boy groaned in annoyance. Today was not "open door" day! This place was his and his alone to enjoy. She was so pathetic, trembling like a leaf. The fox would take care of her.

Her appearance vaguely reminded Naruto of something he should know but before he could think further into it, the fox slowly marched forth, heeding Naruto's silent desire, growling menacingly and visibly enjoying the fear rolling off the woman. The boy could see the fox fed on it as much as it fed on flesh.

The masked girl muttered something Naruto could not understand and watched, vaguely interested, as the fox neared her, still trying to determine why he knew this person.

It was then the cry tore the veil and reached his ears.

"Naruto!"

* * *

"Cat!"

There was no need for the officer to spell out his order. The kunoichi ran, harder, faster, better than she ever had, grabbed Dog -who was standing in front of a strangely unmoving, yet clearly enraged jinchuriki- by the shoulder, focused her chakra through half a ram seal, and as soon as her foot found purchase, flickered in a random direction.

Tiger sighed minutely in relief as he cut his thumb before he sped through enough hand signs to make an Uchiha dizzy, intently focusing on his chakra, drudging every last bit of the special energy he had been "gifted" so long ago and crystallizing it in one single jutsu. Holding a half tiger mudra, Tiger willed the spilling blood to form the kanji for "sit" in his open palm.

"Mokuton: The sage enters society with bliss-bringing hands; fuin!" The ANBU roared as he gripped the forehead of the berserk jinchuriki.

Pillars of woods erupted from the earth, like as many lances tearing through the ground, missing the jinchuriki by a hair's breadth, rapidly enclosing him, leaving him no way to move. The bubbling cloak receded but did not disappear and Tiger could feel the strain on his chakra reserves.

He had always prided himself with having a sizeable pool of energy but right now, it felt like fighting against an ocean

"Naruto! Hear my voice and come back to me!"

* * *

As soon as he had heard the cry, Naruto had jumped. Tackling the fox with all his might, he had wrestled the beast away from Dog. Away from his teammate. Away from his family.

The fox had shaken him off like he had been nothing.

Naruto snarled. This stupid fox. This idiotic, stupid fox. What the hell was it doing? If it thought it was okay to hunt his teammates, Naruto was going to show to it who was boss around here. It was certainly not allowed to attack them, to hurt them, to kill them.

The blond leapt and hollered a war cry as he bodied the fox once again, wrapping all his available limbs around his jaw and neck, strangling it mercilessly, bringing it down in the muddy ground.

Out of nowhere, Naruto felt his head jerk backwards, as he had been hit by a palm strike to the forehead. A burning sensation drilled his skull and the boy cried but did not release his hold on the fox.

A fox that felt considerably weaker under his grip. Under tears of pain, Naruto looked at his enemy and nearly released it out of shock.

The fox had been hit in its forehead too, the kanji for "sit" etched on it by fire. The bubbling, wild, burning power was started to crumble and slip away from it like some sort of rotting layer of flesh and dead blood, revealing the beast underneath.

And Naruto could not refrain a gasp from escaping his mouth when he saw he was strangling himself.

"Naruto! Hear my voice and come back to me!"

The unmistakable voice of Tiger rang in Naruto's ears.

The Other-Naruto snarled, glaring hatefully at Naruto with his black and red eyes. "He wants to control us! Stop fighting me and I can give us freedom!" The boy hissed, his voice carrying nothing but rage.

"That's an order soldier! And I'll deck you again if you don't obey right now!" The unusually stern voice, with maybe a hint of worry mixed in, of his superior officer reached the boys' ears once again.

Naruto smiled. That was Tiger, no doubt. The blond pouted for a second; there was no doubt either that the man would punch him anyway. Maybe he could negotiate some sort of commutation?

With as much strength as he was capable of, Naruto snapped the neck of Other-Naruto, eliciting a bellowing roar of pain and anger. Taking advantage of the debilitated state of his darker twin, Naruto pushed him deep in the red goo they were fighting in.

Only for the entire world to lurch around like a drunkard and throw him off in the air when Other-Naruto decked him through the viscous tar he was drowning in.

Naruto snarled. There was no way a stupid doppelganger was coming out on top, 'ttebayo!

"We don't have to fight!" Other-Naruto screamed angrily. "We are one and the same! We want the same thing!"

Naruto landed with a roll and fell in a stance. "The same thing? You nearly murdered my teammate!"

Yami tsk'd and growled. "What a teammate she is! She refused to teach us!"

"She got her head out of her ass! She taught me a lot!" The original blond retorted hotly, bursting forth and engaging his twin in a furious exchange of fist.

Other-Naruto, a snarl of his own etched on his face, kept hurling his anger, his moves sloppier than Naruto's own, telegraphing each of his punches. "She hates us! They all hate us! They want to control-"

A straight punch to the mouth silenced Yami, who reeled. Naruto did not allow it. Grabbing his reflection by the shoulder, his right struck like a snake, impacting Other-Naruto on both ears, before jabbing him in the throat.

"Your anger makes you sloppy," Naruto remarked before coiling around a desperate strike and locking the offending arm in a bind, sending Yami sprawling in the goo, shoulder and elbow broken.

"You cannot win! I'm you! I'm all you don't want to acknowledge! All your hatred! All your resentment!" Yami hurled, his arm already healed.

"Tiger's second lesson." The original blond answered coldly.

"Huh?"

Growling an animalistic "kiai", Naruto sent Yami careening away with a solid kick to the face, snapping the reflection's neck, cracking his skull, and shattering his jaw.

"A ninja controls his emotions in battle. And Naruto Uzumaki is a ninja, 'ttebayo!"

Flexing his chakra, Naruto leapt toward Yami, who was still gathering himself, and chained vicious blows after underhanded strikes.

"I lost my cool and I nearly killed Dog. I'm not listening to the Fox anytime soon. And you! Stay! Down!" Punctuating his order with a particularly powerful punch at each word, Naruto stopped his assault to see Yami drowning in the goo.

Breathing hard, Naruto waited for a minute for his doppelganger to resurface but nothing came.

"That's right me! Stay the fuck down, 'ttebayo!"

Closing his eyes, the blond inhaled deeply. Only for the world to spin again. With a groan, the boy opened his blue peepers but smiled at the sight.

In front of him, unmasked and worry clear to see in his eyes, stood Tiger.

Naruto could hear himself trying to gurgle something and felt his body fall like a dead rock.

"Dog! Medic here!"

* * *

**AN: I hope you enjoyed. I'm out of witty things to say so I'll just ask to share your thoughts in a review (or a PM). Feedback feeds me.**

**P.S: I received some questions about pairings. There will be some romance because I do believe it can make for some interesting character development but not yet. First, let Naruto get used to killing. I'll announce the likely pairing at the beginning of Shippuden.**


	15. Chapter 15 Visit

**AN: Hello all. Here is chapter 15. It has not been beta-ed but I thought it was time I gave you all something. When my beta finishes, an updated version of chapter 15 will be uploaded. Until then, enjoy.**

* * *

"How is he?"

This voice was a whisper, a monotone drawl in the baritone registry. Naruto knew of it. He knew the person it belonged to.

"Roughed up. Badly. And he has one hell of a fever."

That voice was clearer, higher-pitched, but full, round, yet trembling at the edges. Not the voice of a woman but not the voice of a girl anymore. It was also a familiar voice.

"How so?" The man with the monotone asked again.

He had something to do with an animal. A big cat, if his memory served Naruto right. Lynx? Nah. Panther maybe?

No, that was not it either. Why was his mind so fuzzy? It was annoying. And the constant, uncontrollable shivers running up and down his body were annoying too.

"I'll need him awake for a complete check-up but I can guarantee he won't ever shout again." The teenager answered.

Naruto frowned. He knew her also. Pug? No. Chihuahua? The boy bit down a snort but wasn't entirely successful. He instantly stopped and whimpered a bit when his throat caught fire. That was not it but he was close. Willing his brain to supply him with an answer, Naruto kept coming short and frowned, dissatisfied. Why was everything so foggy? Why was his entire body pulsing with pain? What had even happened to him?

Someone shushed him and he felt something cold being placed on his forehead. The sensation relaxed him immediately.

"What I fear most is brain damage but I can't assess completely while he's asleep."

"What did your iryojutsu tell you?"

"He definitely suffered from anoxia, for how long exactly I can't say. His brain has been damaged and even if it was somehow repaired, the consequences could be anything."

"Given his healing factor, what can we expect?"

"Honestly sergeant, I can't say for sure. He could be paralyzed, amnesiac to various degree, he could be incapable of speech, he could be extremely violent or constantly terrified… Anything."

There was a sigh. "What about Cat?"

"She had a mild concussion. The bastard hit hard apparently but it was nothing I could not fix. She just needs her rest."

"Alright." There was a shuffle of cloth against cloth, an exhausted groan, and stretched limbs before the man spoke again. "What a mess."

"Nothing you need to blame yourself for sergeant."

There was a marked silence, a hesitation, a waver in the baritone. "No." The man eventually acknowledged. "Still, for things to go FUBAR like that… And we are still not out of the fire."

Deciding he was safe among voices he knew and considering he felt like he had obviously been trampled by some kind of very heavy animal, Naruto drifted back into sleep. He was certain they wouldn't deprive him of his rest.

As soon as the voices were out of his reach, the blond found himself in a narrow expense of nowhere. His breath hitched when in front of him shimmered the dead corpses of all four ninja and kunoichi he had killed. Naruto glared at the apparitions who glared in return.

"Go away!"

Only silence and reproachful looks answered him. The blond stared down the four ghosts. They would not leave him alone, even when he was unconscious! Sending a smouldering glare their way, the blond attempted the best he could to scare them away.

To no avail, as after five minutes of absolute silence save for Naruto huffing and doing his best to be intimidating, the ghosts were still there. Unmoving. Quiet. Dead.

Accusatory.

Naruto felt his cool slip away from his control, anger tugging on his emotional leash. "Fuck! Off! I followed my orders! It was a mission. It was fair! I won the fight 'ttebayo!" Stabbing his pointer finger at each of the apparition, the blond took the most threatening tone he was capable of. "Now leave me alone, or else!"

The apparition kept staring in silence, their eyes the only way to express their fury.

The blond huffed and turned his back to them but they were facing him. Unnerved, Naruto took a step back, only for the ghosts to follow him. The blond closed his eyes and frowned, his face deforming in a hard grimace.

Even under his eyelids, the four pairs of eyes were still glaring. The blond flailed and opened his own blue orbs with a muted shout of fear. What were those? Why were they here? For him to feel guilty? Naruto could feel anger and trepidation both welling in his chest. Were they here to take their revenge?

Suddenly, the apparitions floated forwards, slowly but purposefully moving toward him. Naruto felt his head shake "no" and took several steps back. To no avail, as the distance between him and the ghosts kept steadily decreasing.

"No, no, no, no, get away from me, get away from me!" The boy screamed, panic mounting inside him, gripping at his throat, tripping his heart, weakening his legs.

Naruto felt himself miss a step. In a flash, the apparitions were on him as he fell slowly, as if out of time. Ghastly nails clawed at his flesh, he could sense their teeth tearing him apart while his gaze was held captive by their dead, unseeing eyes. The lone kunoichi pressed a hand against his mouth and Naruto felt himself start to suffocate.

He knew the feeling now. He had experienced it. Blood gushed from his throat, reddening his tattered shirt and invading his lungs. Inexorably, Naruto drowned once again. With a gurgled cry of despair, the boy pushed the dead woman away from him.

"Naruto! Calm down! It's me, Dog!"

Someone was calling out to him while someone else was screaming bloody murder right into his ears. It took a few seconds for Naruto to realize he was the one deafening himself.

"Breath! Yes, that's it, breath!"

Following the voice, the blond greedily inhaled oxygen, his throat burning and irritating him, the sensation sending him into a coughing fit. Everything felt incredibly dry. His lips were cracked and painful, his throat parched, and he was quite certain his entire body lacked water.

As if reading his thoughts, the mysterious person next to him rose a gourd to his mouth and the boy lost no time drinking his fill. After a second, he moaned in discontent: whoever was making him drink had carefully tipped the gourd so that only a trickle of water could flow down his thirsty canal.

"Slow down, you're gonna hurt yourself."

Naruto grumbled something and water dripped on his chin. After a while, the content of the gourd exhausted, the boy allowed himself to lay back.

"Where?" He rasped out, his tongue heavy as lead, his throat still painful and his voice muted, barely more than a whisper. He had screamed himself sore, apparently.

"In a safe place, Naruto. An ANBU cache, to be exact, in Rice Country."

The boy groaned in discontent. He still had not left this hellhole?

"Dog?" He asked in his shaky voice, his left hand searching the darkness around him, his right strangely unresponsive.

"Yes, I'm here." The teenage ANBU answered while taking the boy's hand into her own. Her voice seemed to sooth Naruto's worries as he breathed out slowly.

"What… Happened?"

There was a fleeting instant, a hesitation hanging heavy in the air before Dog answered. "What do you remember?"

For a minute, Naruto searched his foggy brain for answers. What he could find was neither satisfying nor reassuring. Eventually, the blond paled, his face turning white as snow.

"I… I attacked you." The boy said in a slow, slurred murmur, mortified.

Dog sighed. "Err… Not really? You took a swipe at me, true, but then you froze immediately after."

Silence fell, heavy as lead, on the two operatives. After minutes of an uncomfortable, uneasy stand-off, Dog spoke again.

"Was that… You know…"

Naruto felt like all the water he had just drank had evaporated. "Kyuubi?" He asked in a broken, high pitched, whisper. "Yeah."

Silence settled between the two ANBU, just as pregnant and uncomfortable as the last one had been. It was Dog who broke it again.

"It's alright you now?" She said, barely louder than a whisper herself this time. She gave Naruto's hand, which she was still holding, a light squeeze. "It's not like you asked for it to be there."

The blond could suddenly taste ashes on his tongue as more flashes from the fight came back to him.

"I asked… For it." Naruto answered, his diction still akin to a drunk's, slipping his hand out of Dog's grip, bitterness and tears straining his voice. "I was weak... Cat was in danger. I asked for... Power."

Naruto closed his eyes, which had slowly become accustomed to the darkness, refusing to see Dog as she would doubtlessly renounce him now. After all, he had failed. He had been weak a first time, allowing Cat to fall captive to the enemy. He had been weak a second time, accepting the poisoned gift of the Kyuubi and endangering his team as a whole.

As the words of Dragon came to his mind, Naruto cried bitterly. Love, he had surrendered his chance to by falling prey to power. Maybe people were right to call him a demon. He should have let himself die. He was sure Dog and Tiger had not needed him to rescue Cat. The thought made him open his eyes.

"Cat!" he gurgled, his throat constricted by fear. "Cat, where is she!" He asked in his raspy whisper.

"Cat is fine, Naruto. Tiger and she are escorting the civilians we saved back to Fire Country with the other team," answered Dog in a sigh. "It is not a matter of concern for you right now, Naruto. What matters is you. How do you feel?

The genuine concern lacing Dog's question startled Naruto, who searched the operator with his gaze. Next to him, diluted in the darkness, was the shape of the ANBU.

"I'm fine."

"No, you're not. Naruto, please. Teammates are also here for that."

Blue eyes widened in surprise.

"Teammates?" Naruto asked hesitantly, slowly. "You don't… You don't…" Naruto flailed panicking before his voice cracked again. "Hate me?"

Dog was apparently stunned silent as she did not answer before several seconds. "What? No! Why would I?"

"'Cause… I used its power. I put you all in danger."

"You told me yourself, you did it to save Cat. And I saw it in your eyes, Naruto. When I called for you, I saw you stop the beast. I saw you stop it cold when I called your name. I saw you come back when Tiger did… His thing. You beat it back!" Dog retorted lowly yet in a firm voice that brokered no discussion.

"But… But the danger…"

"It was impressive and scary," interrupted Dog. "Very scary, I won't lie. And… And I was afraid of you and when Tiger told me I'd have to stay here with you, I argued about it."

Naruto felt a pang of pain tear through his heart but before he could sag down on himself, Dog continued.

"Then I thought about it Naruto. It was scary yes. The scariest shit I've ever seen even. But I can't hold it against you, you know why?"

The blond, slowly, picked up his lowered eyes and looked back at Dog, who was offering him, unmasked, a large, feral grin. His raspy voice broke again, this time from something different.

"N-No?"

"'Cause I would have done the exact same thing." She proclaimed, her voice as hard and resolute as steel. "So thanks for saving Cat." The teenage girl added in a more subdued, but much warmer, tone.

Naruto could not really hear Dog. He could only marvel at the warmth her two eyes held. He silently thanked the Flame and cried his relief. He barely noticed the warm embrace he fell asleep into.

* * *

As his companions, their gathered genin, and himself neared the monumental doors of the Shine of the Great Mother, Kakashi could not help but stand a little straighter, his one eye shifting from his orange little book to observe and admire the gigantic structure.

The doors had stood through time, thousand of years if legends were true and certainly a few centuries if one was sceptical, and the jonin had no choice but to admit they were impressive. The walls they were granting access to had been destroyed and rebuilt numerous time but the two gigantic panels of wood, iron, and bronze had weathered all.

It was said they were nigh indestructible. Kakashi was not sure about that but they were certainly as beautiful as he remembered them. He had been here already, some twenty years ago. Through the grief that was crushing him at the time, he could not help but notice the doors.

Kakashi sighed. Now was not the time to dwell on the past. He had to be as sharp and ready as he was capable to be. He would not let himself be a puppy for the hawk to mercilessly slaughter. He had to be a wolf today. A savage, astute one.

As they passed the entrance, the Hatake discreetly smiled at the astonished look all genin wore for all to see on their face. The doors were a work of art, fifteen meters high for four meters wide, and as thick as an adult's arm. On them were frescoes, restored regularly, depicting the life of the Great Mother.

How she had descended from the sun to cultivate the Tree of Origin to nurture the desertic land. How greed pushed humans to fight for the lush earth she had created. How she ate the sole fruit of the Tree to restore peace. How she fell in love with a human and birthed his two sons. How her husband betrayed her, jealous of her powers, and murdered the Tree to drink its sap. How her two sons, having inherited her might, put their own father down.

It was a tale about the origin of their world and the origin of chakra itself. A grandiose epic that the monks and priestesses of the shrine kept alive.

Not that Kakashi believed any of it but it made for a nice bedtime story. One his mother loved to tell him. The jonin frowned minutely. He did not want to think about that. He had to be strong, focused. He threw a glance at his genin. Choji had stopped eating for once, too taken by the sight to keep to his habits, Ino was star-eyed and bouncing in a very excited manner, and even Shikamaru could not maintain his blazé expression.

"Impressive, heh, my little genin?" Kakashi asked with mirth.

Ino whirled around to face him. "That doesn't cut it Lazy-sensei!" The blonde Yamanaka answered with enthusiasm, giving him the surname she had come up with for him. "I had heard of it but to see it for real is so cool! Neh, could we stop for a while to observe them once the mission is over?"

Kakashi eye-smiled but was cut by Shikamaru. "Troublesome. We're not on a vacation Ino, we don't have time to gawk at… Doors." The Nara answered out loud before muttering something about them being impressive and troublesome.

"Tch, don't be a killjoy Lazy-kun, I'm talking an hour or so. You just want to go back to watching cloud, well looking at art might joggle your brain a bit. Might make you less lazy." Ino retorted, pointing a menacing finger at the pineapple-haired clan heir.

The boy paled comically and shook his head. "More reason not to do it then. And Choji will be short on chips if we delay too long, neh Choji? …Choji?"

But Choji was too absorbed with the masterpiece to give any of his attention to either his chips, Shikamaru, or anything else. Eyes wide, mouth slightly agape, the Akimichi was looking everywhere, wishing he had some eyes that could remember everything, or better yet, one of those fancy "camera" thingies. Seeing as he did not, he was doing his best to consign as much as possible to memory.

The entrance eventually passed through, the rather large group of Konoha-nin, four jonin and three teams of genin, found themselves in a dedal of countless shrines of all size. The largest road starting from the door led up an apparently endless set of stairs, with torii keeping vigil at a regular interval, to the main temple.

"So, what exactly are we doing sensei?" A brunette girl dressed in an unusual qipao asked, chipper, to Might Gai, her jonin instructor. Tenten, if Kakashi remembered right, and he always did, was a year older then his own charges.

Gai, a lean giant clad in the most singular green spandex to ever grace Earth, answered in his usual -some would say overly enthusiastic- voice. "Well Tenten, this mission's specific objective is unfortunately not for you to know! I regret to say that you and your youthful teammates and comrades won't accompany us. Fear not though! I'm certain my colleagues and I will find youthful exercises to keep you all occupied!"

The girl and one of her teammate, a Hyuuga boy named Neji, paled slightly at the claim, only for their third teammate, a boy bearing a startling resemblance to Gai himself -haircut and bushy brows included-, to enthusiastically proclaim his willingness to engage in youthful training.

Or something like that. Honestly, Kakashi could not listen too closely, for fear of his hype ending burnt and lost in the "Flames of Youth". To each their philosophy, or rather, to each their way of coping.

The "Flames of Youth" were probably healthier than his own obsessions but the Hatake did not have the strength to be bothered. He had never been a bag of sunshine, to begin with.

The white-haired, cyclopean jonin sighed. He often wondered what his sensei would say if he could see him like that. No doubt his wife would plant her foot as far up his bottom as she could; she had been a strong believer of shock therapy. Kakashi shook his head. It was the reason he did not like coming to the Shrine. It made him terribly melancholic. Even more than the Stone of the Fallen in Konoha, if such a thing was even possible.

Having left their genin with strict instructions to train, and in the case of Gai's replica to not destroy anything, the four jonin walked up the stairs path and, after a good fifteen minutes of a leisurely walk, reached an especially large building. One by one, they jostled the little bell and threw a ryo down the well below it, announcing their entrance and asking for the benediction of whoever, or whatever, was keeping watch over this particular shrine.

A show of politeness more than faith. Shinobi rarely believed in anything else than themselves and their village. The only deity they respected was the Feuding Brothers.

They waited another minute until a priest appeared at the shrine's entrance, gasped, turned heels only to return another minute later with the abbot, an elderly man dressed in rich garments.

"Welcome, Konoha-nin. What brings you here, to the Great Mother's abode?"

"We are here to see a friend of ours who retired here. He grew weary of the strife and sought peace in the Great Mother's embrace."

The abbot's eyes suddenly steeled and the man nodded once before he motioned for the ninja to follow him and for the younger priest to disappear and forget about what he had seen and heard.

The four shinobi were led through various parts of the complex to a small house hidden in the back of an inner garden. At one point, Kakashi felt the abbot unmistakably pulse chakra but before he could analyze what had been done, they were standing in front of the house. The abbot knocked and a small aperture was promptly opened in the door before the panel itself was unlocked, revealing a young, straight-laced young man dressed as a servant.

"Good day to you, Ute. Shimura-san has visitors."

Ute eyed the four shinobi and nodded. "Shinobi-sama, please follow me. I'll warn Shimura-sama of your presence here."

Kakashi swallowed and shook himself like a wet dog. That was it. In a few moments, they would meet the Warhawk of Konoha. No mistake would be forgiven.

The Hatake was honestly happy about the fact that Ibiki and Gai were going first.

* * *

After another day of rest, Naruto had been carefully scrutinized by Dog, his body, reflexes, motor skills and whatnot each tested and marked.

The good news was that he could still think normally and solve basic riddles. His memory was apparently intact and he was still in control of all important muscles and sphincters.

His first attempt to stand up, however, had been disastrous, as had been his second and third. After much efforts, he had identified a constant ringing in his left ear and a slight feeling of vertigo as soon as he was not laying down. He had to add to that the fact his right hand was nearly unresponsive. He could only open it or form a fist, nothing else. The dexterity loss was nearly complete. To top it all off, his speech was slurred. He had to talk slowly and carefully for the words to come outright.

Also, now he had a raspy voice due to damaged vocal cords.

"Brain damage," had summarized Dog tersely but with sympathy in her voice. The brain was still a mysterious organ everyone knew was fragile and hence, it was studied with extreme caution. The medic, as talented as she was, was not knowledgeable enough about it to say if it was something Naruto could heal from or not, or even if it was the extent of it all.

If it was, Naruto could assuredly say he was lucky, given the fact that he could have ended as an unresponsive vegetable at worst.

Over the course of a week, the boy learned to cope with his various handicap, mulling over them and trying to come with positive things. The vertigo had been complicated to fight against and getting accustomed to but Naruto had gritted his teeth and forced himself to walk. After five days, his step had morphed into a rolling gait, like that of a sailor and the uneasiness had left. The blond reasoned that the sensation of unbalance could become a marker for genjutsu. If the vertigo disappeared, it meant he was possibly trapped in one, as there was no way an enemy would know to adapt a genjutsu to this particular deficiency of his.

The slurred speech, well, he just had to become less hyper, a process that had already begun thanks to Tiger's repeated beatings.

Losing dexterity in his right sucked big time though. There was nothing positive about that. Goodbye carefully drilled hand signs, goodbye neat shurikenjutsu tricks, goodbye all his progress with his chokuto. He would have to relearn everything until motor control came back to him, if it ever did, and find a way around for ninjutsu. Thinking about it had been mildly discouraging before Naruto slapped himself in the face with his good hand. If he had to master free form chakra manipulation, he would. It was not a lame hand that would keep him from becoming a ninja!

The constant exercise distracted him from his ghosts during the hours he spent awake but the revenants kept haunting his dreams, turning them into nightmares. On the third night, after he screamed himself sore in terror, Dog, as his doctor, encouraged him to talk.

Naruto did on the fifth morning, after another nightmarish episode. The teenage girl immediately assured him the ghosts were nothing but figments of his own imagination and recommended him to see a specialist once they were back in Konoha.

Battle fatigue was not a laughing matter, certainly not a shameful affliction, and an entire branch of the Yamanaka served the village as psychiatrists for this very reason, their mind jutsu especially useful to uproot many mental ailments.

Today was the seventh day since Naruto's awakening, eighth since Tiger and Cat had left Dog and him alone to resume the escort of the captured civilians back to Fire Country. And the blond was going stir crazy if he were to be totally honest. His newly found disability and the ghosts did not help but it was mainly the inaction driving him mad. The waiting.

Dog and he were confined in a minuscule shack lost somewhere in a patch of wood, camouflaged in the undergrowth, with barely enough place for them given the massive -and massively outdated- communication device kept inside.

Radiotelegraphy had made considerable progress since this outpost had been abandoned and regular incursion in Lightning Country made sure Konoha was not too far behind technologically speaking.

They could not risk going out to hunt, they could not risk making a fire, they could not risk walking around. After their stunt and given the fact one enemy had survived the encounter, there was a high chance those Oto-nin, whoever they obeyed, would swarm every possible square inch this side of the frontier searching for the ninja who had intruded in their territory and interrupted their business. It was apparent they were the new boss of Rice Country.

Something Naruto had not known beforehand and had constituted a bad surprised. The blond had thought long and hard about the fight -not that he could do much else- and realized one of Tiger's lesson had been enforced. Knowledge was crucial to ninja. During his month working at the mission desk, he had never had to study a mission request for Rice Country and he had lacked intelligence. His entire team had lacked intelligence. The land of Rice was not supposed to host a ninja village.

The blond knew border sweep in Rice would soon become the new craze in ANBU.

His wandering thoughts had carried him further and Naruto had analyzed, with great displeasure, his disastrous fights.

His first two victims ever had been ambushed and he did not want to think about it. His first real combat had been the man with the scissor-like weapon. It had been quick, merciless, and he had nearly lost his head first and then his hand. But it had been his win. It had been the enemy who crumbled in a bloody heap on the ground, lifeless.

Then the kunoichi had returned from chasing La and had made Naruto understand the saying "there's always a bigger fish".

He had been powerless, his defence failing, his body giving in, and worst of all, his fighting spirit extinguished. The one and only conclusion he could reach had imposed itself pretty quickly to his mind.

He had to get better.

It was this problem precisely that he was pondering. Despite Tiger's absence, Naruto refused to allow himself to think simply. His sensei had taught him how to analyze things in-depth, how to see what was underneath a problem.

What did it mean to get better?

Naruto could get stronger, he could get faster, he could become sturdier. However, if he accepted the existence of the "bigger fish" as an axiom, there would come a fight when it would be useless. There would come a fight much like the one he had barely survived, where his opponent would possess the superior strength, speed, and sturdiness.

The solution was simple. Obvious. Already known, unconsciously, and well practised. Eight years old him had not outrun the chunin chasing him after his pranks at first. The reason he laid traps for them was that, before his twelfth year, he had been nowhere near fast enough to escape his pursuers. He had fought them the only way he could: cunningly and intelligently.

That had been his way to negate the advantage of the many enraged chunin after him. That had to become his way to negate the advantage of anyone stronger, faster, sturdier. Because this time, his life was at stake. And the life of his teammates also.

The reflexion had been fruitful, the resolution was taken promptly, and it had left him without much to think about for the remainder of his wait. Hence him slowly but steadily going crazy.

"I'm so done." The blond said, his diction changed to a slight drawl to erase his handicap.

"You said that already," answered Dog, her tone heavy with lassitude. "A few minutes ago I think. That was the hundred and twenty-first time."

"I'm never coming to Rice, ever again."

Dog sighed. "Yup, I know."

"When is Tiger coming back?" The blond wailed in a whisper, crocodile tears running down his cheeks, his arms flailing around him.

"He said a week and a half. Still three more days. Maybe." The teenage girl answered distractedly.

"Maybe? I won't survive for three days!" Naruto murmured furiously in his drawled speech.

"Well, what do you want me to do?" Dog asked, resigned to repeat a conversation they already had numerous times. She was not happy to be stuck in a cramped shack, with only the barest necessities to keep clean, on a diet of ration bars, especially with an over-excited boy who was barely recovering from brain trauma. She hungered for a hot meal, she smelled like a dump, her companion smelled even worse somehow, and he was pestering her about something she only had a vague idea about.

And she knew she would have to punch people back in HQ who would doubtlessly utter some nonsensical sexual jokes about the entire situation. She was tired just thinking about it.

It was a relief the blond boy was completely clueless because that would have been the nail in her coffin.

She distractedly heard Naruto groan and sit down. She was growing restless too if she were honest but at least she did not have to endure the brutal changes the boy had to adapt to. He had already won against his vertigo and his speech impediment and she knew he was anxious to work around his right-hand disability. But he could not, not without them risking getting found out.

"I really can't do anything?"

Dog inhaled deeply, a calming, centering breath. The blond had made undeniable progress in the past two and a half months, and she had to remind herself he was a twelve years old boy who had barely graduated from the Academy.

With four kills under the belt and a resurrection, which was more than any kid out of the Academy since less than three months could pretend to, ever and legends included, but a kid nonetheless. An excitable, energetic kid, whose tendencies had been amplified in the worst possible time. She had to find something, or despite all the control he had over himself, he would end up making a mistake.

Dog suddenly clapped in her hands. "Alright, lesson time!" She exclaimed with as much enthusiasm as she could muster.

Naruto stopped in his tracks -he was pacing- and looked at the teenage girl. "What?"

"Lesson time. You're going stir crazy, we'll occupy your mind if we cannot occupy your body."

The blond gazed at her for a solid thirty seconds. "You will teach me?"

"Yeah, combat medicine. Now sit down and open your ears."

Naruto obeyed the command, a look of incomprehension on his face -he hadn't been wearing his mask for a while now, with Dog's express permission as medic-, and stared at the ANBU. "You know I still suck massive Flames at chakra controls, right?"

Dog waved her hand in the air, dismissing the remark. "Combat surgery is not all about jutsu. In fact, it's mainly not about jutsu. There are a number of reflexes to have when an ally is wounded that could save him long enough for a qualified iryonin to actually heal his wound. Surgery done in the field is rare."

"Ah?" The blond intelligently said.

"Tsunade-sama was the kunoichi who devised Konoha's combat medicine doctrine."

"You mean the iryonin rules?" Naruto asked, vaguely remembering having read something about it during one of his day spent in the ANBU library.

"No. The iryonin creed only concerns actual iryonin. I'm talking about the protocol devised to increase survival chance."

Seeing Naruto giving her a blank look, Dog shook her head. She knew, intellectually, that it was not, for some reason, taught in the Academy. She did not, intellectually, understand why. "I forget that you're a newbie sometimes."

The blond shot her a dirty glare and crossed his arms. The ANBU noticed and raised her hands in surrender. That had definitely come out wrong.

"Sorry, shouldn't have said that. My bad, moving on."

The boy frowned and shook his head suddenly, interrupting his teacher. "No, you know what, actually let's talk about it. Can't have bad blood between you and me, so we need to clear that up. With due respect, what's your problem with me, Dog, honest?" He asked in his new drawl, his face a picture of seriousness.

The teenage girl frowned under her own mask. Her first thought was to dismiss the question, pure and simple, but she knew they had to clear the air. She had been a proper teacher to the blond for the past month, she had seen to it that he grew into a proper ninja and potential teammate, they even shared a dose of complicity, as far as she could tell. She had swept their initial interaction under the rug. Dog sighed.

"Look, I really did not mean anything by that. When we first met, I was rude for petty reasons that aren't worth mentioning. I apologize for that. I had my up way too far up my own ass."

Naruto snorted but nodded, waiting for the girl to continue.

"You progress quickly. Hell, you're close to chunin level honestly, so when you don't know some stuff I consider obvious, it's… Yeah. Weird. And I have to remind myself that you are a newbie."

The blond huffed. "Well, I'm pretty sure there is a nicer way to say it."

This time, it was Dog's turn to snort. "I'm not really paid to be nice to you. What's wrong with newbie anyway?"

"Newbie sounds like I'm incapable of anything! And teammates should be nice to each other for free, you venal woman."

"Oy, I'm not venal! And how do you know what-"

"I read stuff. You know I had a B plus in literature right, or didn't you look at my file?"

Dog choked on her saliva in surprise and coughed several times to recover. Even from behind her mask, Naruto could feel her incredulous look. "You. You had a B plus in literature?"

The blond eye-rolled. "My hobby is fuinjutsu! It's literally about literature! People need to stop thinking I'm retarded. I was bad at math okay?! Everyone has a weakness." Naruto finished, pouting.

Dog laughed and rose a fisted hand. "A weakness? 'Cause I remember disastrous results not only in math but in physic, chemistry, and geography also," said the ANBU, raising one finger for each subject.

The blond glared before a strangely triumphant look dawned on his face. "Ah! So you did read my file!"

The girl waved a dismissive hand. "Yeah, yeah, I did. Look, when they stuck us with you, I was mad. I had to work my ass off to enter ANBU and suddenly a kid fresh out the Academy is invited? What kind of horseshit is that? So I was an asshole until Tiger set me straight. I regret that. Are we good?"

Naruto gave her a strange look for five silent seconds before he scratched the back of his head bashfully. "What? Yeah yeah, we are good of course! I mean, I reacted like a brat because I thought you were like those teachers at the Academy but it's no excuse. You taught me properly in the end so we're good. I just thought… You keep calling me newb whenever you teach me and…" The blond mumbled something Dog could not hear.

"What?"

Again, the boy mumbled something broken that the girl could not properly make out.

"Oy, you gotta speak louder newbie!"

"It makes me feel stupid okay?!"

Silence encased the two, who simply stared at each other for a full minute.

"What?"

"I was called dead-last in the Academy each time I screwed up and I screwed up a lot!" Naruto spoke in a quick, almost frenzied way, his words tumbling out of his mouth too quickly to be properly pronounced. "Now you're calling me a newb and it makes me feel stupid. You think I don't know that it's horseshit how I got into ANBU? Before we got stuck into this mess, I kept asking myself if I deserved it or not! Do I deserve my headband? Do I deserve my invitation in ANBU? Do I deserve three teachers rather than one? I've been treated like nothing for all my life and I just wanted to be normal but suddenly I've got all… All this! And each time you call me newb, it just hammers home that maybe I don't deserve it!" The blond hurled in a harsh whisper, his throat burning and his breath short.

Dog just looked at the boy, flabbergasted, as he found his breath back. "Well, shit." She eventually uttered, too shocked for much else.

The blond sighed. "Err, sorry, I-"

"No, no. Now I feel even more like an ass. Why didn't you say anything?"

Naruto looked down and scratched the back of his scalp again. "'Cause it's whiny, 'ttebayo." He mumbled, sounding dejected.

Dog inhaled sharply, trying to stifle a sudden bout of laughter. Breathing in in a more controlled manner, she eyed the boy. "It kinda is." She admitted after a second, mirth evident in her voice.

Naruto's shoulders slumped.

"Hey, remember what I said when you woke up… Nearly a week ago now?"

The blond looked back up and gazed searchingly at Dog's mask. "You… Thanked me for saving Cat's life?"

"Yep. You killed four hostile ninja in your second mission ever, including one jonin, returned from death, got several injuries and combat stress out of it, but above all, you helped save a teammate." Dog took a deep breath. "As far as I'm concerned, if that doesn't make you deserving of what you have, I don't know what will."

Naruto's face brightened with each of the teenage girl's words and when she finished, his smile was almost too bright to be looked at directly.

"Thanks, Dog," said the blond softly.

"You're still a newbie though."

"Oy! We had something here!"

"When they called you dead-last, did you let that discourage you?" The ANBU interrupted.

"Well… No, but-"

"Well, then, you know what you have left to do then, don't you?"

Naruto frowned for a second before his smile returned. "Work my ass off until you can't call me that anymore."

"Yup. Now, you still interested in that lesson in combat medicine?"

"I'm all ears!" The boy assured with a smile.

* * *

Kakashi eyed the report Ibiki had handed out to him. Of course, Danzo knew nothing, had heard nothing, had seen no one, and was a perfectly happy retired shinobi cultivating rather impressive pumpkins.

And Kakashi Hatake was actually the Tsuchikage. Funny.

Considering it was Danzo Shimura they were talking about, the first part of the report could be automatically assumed to be inaccurate. The "happily retired shinobi" was nothing but an act. As for the pumpkins, the Hatake would bet they were poisonous. Or something like that.

Because Danzo Shimura was not the kind of shinobi to ever truly retire in the first place, even under forced circumstances, and it meant he was someone to be wary of. The man had been a teammate of Hiruzen Sarutobi before the man had taken the Hokage hat. He was one of the oldest branches from the Konoha tree still alive. And he was a traitor that the Hokage had seen fit to spare despite an attempt at murdering him, in consideration of Danzo's service to Konoha and Fire Country.

The Fire Daimyo himself had spoken a word in favour of the decrepit, one-eyed, one-armed, old man. He was that dangerous. He had held that much weight.

While carefully controlled isolation had reduced his reach and power to mere shadows of what they had been, the man was still very much a cross between a rattlesnake and a hawk.

"So?" The Hatake asked his three jonin comrades, eyeing Gai in particular.

They were seated around a round table in one of the guest houses of the shrine, their students busy with helping the priests cleaning the shrine.

The green-clad taijutsu master shook his head. "He is unreadable. The amount of control he has over his body language is impressive. Even Hokage-sama isn't as good."

"So we need my Sharingan. Even then, we won't be able to get much from him. Only yes and no."

"It should be enough to set us up on a trail." Ibiki Morino, a majorly gruff individual head of Konoha's Torture and Interrogation section, answered.

"Aoba, I'll need you to disguise me. If Shimura identifies me, he could be capable of countering my eye." Kakashi said, turning to a tall, lean, dark-haired jonin whose eyes were hidden behind dark sunglasses.

"Is that even possible?" The man asked, sceptical about the existence of anything capable of trumping the Sharingan in plain view.

"I do not know but if someone ever came up with something, it's Shimura. Better not take any risk."

"But can't you use your Sharingan to do that?"

"I'd need to look at him in the eye and he is good enough to immediately work against it."

Aoba nodded. "Alright. Who will you be?"

Kakashi hummed for a second, scratching his chin in thoughts. "I need to be plain but not too much. If I'm too plain, Danzo will suspect something. I cannot be a Yamanaka, that's too obvious… Nor an Inuzuka. They make good oinin but poor interrogators."

"How about a Kurama?" Ibiki suggested.

"Yep, that works. I'll be Hito Kurama, tokujo, twenty-seven, member of T&I, born the twenty-six of may-"

"February. We are too close to May. And you are born on the twelfth actually." Ibiki corrected.

"Alright fair enough. So born on the twelfth of February, from…"

"Zaku and Kimichi Kurama." Gai offered.

"Good. I'm a career tokujo and I ended in T&I because my little talent with genjutsu helps me break our prisoners open. I have a weak constitution so like many of my clan, I have poor taijutsu abilities."

"No wife, no kid?" Ibiki asked in a chastising tone.

"Yes, of course, sorry Ibiki. A lovely wife for seven years, of course. Her name's Maki, a civilian born ninja, same age, and a wonderful… Son? Damn, I didn't do that in a while. Yeah, a son called Taiga, seven already, born in September, and a little girl Hina, four, born in May. Our honeymoon was in Tea Country."

"Not too much excess possible due to your body so you compensate a bit with sweets. You also have a low chakra capacity, obviously. And… That's about it. It should hold," said Ibiki, approvingly this time. "You need something else Aoba?"

"No, I have it."

"Good. Tomorrow, it'll be your turn."

* * *

Today was the twelfth day since Naruto's awakening and it was also the boy's turn to make sure the batteries of the radiotelegraph were charged. The blond was energetically turning a crank connected to a dynamo mechanism when the reception table started to crack with static before beeping along a coded sequence.

The blond excitedly abandoned his task and shook Dog awake before sitting in front of the reception post.

"Wah, whazat? What's happening?" The ANBU girl muttered groggily, still captive in the net of sleep.

"They are sending a message!" Naruto shout-whispered in answer. "Wait…" The blond motioned for silence and closed his eyes, listening with rapt attention to the song made by the beeping sounds.

After a few seconds, the boy suddenly opened his eyes and smiled in Dog's general direction. "Tiger is coming to fetch us, with a whole platoon to boot. We are going home! They'll be here in two days."

Dog groaned in relief. Just two more days in this hole and they would be through. She could cry of joy. Thanks the Flames they were done. Never again in Rice Country, not until ANBU upgraded their safe houses.

Safehouse, more like a safe dump, yeah. The only thing that worried her was the possible opposition from the Oto-nin. Naruto and she had been safe, hidden in their shack, and Dog had not sensed any hostile coming even close to their location but that did not mean the countryside and the frontier was not patrolled by ninja.

It was a bet really. They could have tried to exfiltrate by themselves. A group of two is nigh undetectable but if it is, itis slaughtered. An entire platoon, on the other hand, attracts more attention but can fight its way in and out. Tiger had estimated that coming back full steam with fourteen ANBU was the safest choice.

Now they just had to pass two days without murdering each other. Easier said than done but they had already twelve days of experience under the belt: two more days would not break them.

"You know how to send an acknowledgement?"

"Yes, yes. I'm on it."

"Good."

Soon, Dog could hear the rhythmic tapping of the lever encoding their response over the faint buzzing of the emission machinery. It was lucky Naruto was a chakra tank with enough energy to power the device by himself. After a week feeding on rations, Dog was feeling a bit faint.

The two days passed without incident. Dog kept teaching Naruto a variety of first aid and emergency procedures and began grilling him on his knowledge of anatomy. The blond, on his time alone, continued to try on recovering as much feeling and control over his right hand as he possibly could, without success.

As it seemed his right hand would be useless to him for a long while, maybe forever, the blond did not neglect to play with his functional left, twirling kunai, juggling shuriken, and playing around with his chokuto.

It was maybe five in the morning, barely dawn, when Naruto's senses blared, forcing him awake. He knew there were people at the fringe of his awareness. They were on guard, ready, and travelling fast. As it was Dog's turn to keep watch, he saw the ANBU was already preparing herself.

"Dog." The boy whispered.

"Yes."

"Someone is approaching."

"What? How do you…" Dog did not finish her sentence and inclined her head, straining her hearing. After two long minutes of silence, she suddenly took a whiff of the ambient. "How did you know we had incoming?"

Naruto sent her a weird glance. "I… I don't know? I felt them."

"You felt them? Wait… You're a sensor and you didn't tell us!" Dog whispered harshly, glaring at the boy behind her mask.

"A sensor!? I don't know!" Naruto retorted at the same volume. "I'm not sure how I felt them. I can't-"

The signal for "absolute silence" interrupted the blond. Putting his excellent ears to the test, the boy listened, trying to pick up the arrival of whoever was coming toward them. Allies, he hoped. Otherwise, he would sell his hide at a high price.

Seconds trickled down that felt like hours until the distinct cry of a Fire Country pheasant rung in both operatives' ears. Naruto smiled and relaxed, slowly storing the kunai he had unconsciously drawn into its pouch. Still wary of a possible ambush, the ANBU and the initiate exited their shack and hid before Dog mimicked the bird again, whistling two times.

"Dog? Maru?"

Naruto didn't know if he was going to smile or cry right now. His grin was actually so wide it was hurting him and his throat was strangely tight.

"Tiger?" He muttered, his voice shuddering with relief.

Naruto was so going to cash in on his grandfather's debt. There would be so much ramen, it would be glorious.

* * *

Just as Aoba and Kakashi entered the office where Danzo Shimura would receive them, the Hatake heard a crow cry three times. He knew the genjutsu masking his real identity was now in place. With a nonchalant motion, the jonin adjusted his slanted hitai-ite, setting it straight and revealing a peculiar eye, with a red iris and a small, black pupil surrounded by three slowly spinning tomoe.

His gift and his burden alike. As soon as the light hit it, the implanted Sharingan started draining the Hatake's chakra and Kakashi felt his vision dissociate.

The world did not slow down. Rather, it multiplied itself in a canvas of nearly infinite possibilities which kept collapsing under their own probabilistic weigh. Kakashi forced down a reflexive twitch and intently focused a small part of his chakra to his brain to help the zone in charge of his vision process the alien information.

When his friend had gifted him his very eye, it had been impossible to graft more than the orb and the optical nerve. As such, Kakashi's brain was literally not encoded to understand what the Sharingan saw. It had taken countless hours of training before the Hatake had been able to start holding his promise.

To see the world for Obito had been a tiring ordeal.

Slowly, Kakashi focused his entire attention on the old man sitting across the table as he took his own seat next to Aoba. The fleeting possibilities vanished from his view and he concentrated further.

It was imperceptible but he could see it. The wisps of chakra slowly trickling, naturally, from the elder's tenketsu. Yet the man's mystical energy was not what interested him. The jonin fixed his eye on Shimura's throat and searched a second for the frail pulsation of his beating heart.

Looking at Danzo in the eye was too unreliable. Nobody, not even a ninja, could control the reflex contraction of their pupil and it was a surefire way to tell if someone was lying. But there was an easy trick to throw it off.

Winking.

It would not do to go back home without answered because their target had simply closed their eyelids at the right time.

So monitoring the heartbeat it was. Danzo Shimura was an old, lean man, with still firm skin, and his jugular had been easy to find. The problem was that for a ninja, controlling their heartbeat was easy. Controlling it entirely, though, was not possible. Some emotions would reflexively cause a jump, an anomaly, a sign. Something Kakashi's Sharingan would catch on.

The Hatake tugged lightly on the length of ninja wire that linked his right pinkie with Aoba's left, signifying that he was ready.

"Thank you for receiving us, Shimura-san." Aoba said politely.

"It is nothing but my duty to receive Konoha shinobi." The old man answered, his voice expressing nothing. With his only arm, he stacked the papers he was working on and put them aside.

Kakashi wondered for a second if it would not be easier to have a look at whatever the old crook was working on. He was supposed to be a retired shinobi, by the Flame! How could a retired shinobi have so much business going on on his table?

"Good. I will not insult your intelligence and pretend it is not an interrogation, Shimura-san. We have uncovered some disturbing operation in Konoha and it has been linked to a certain S-rank encoding key. A key that belonged to you."

Kakashi smiled as Danzo's heart missed a beat. It would work. The Hatake tugged at the wire that linked him to Aoba, his gaze intently fixated on their objective.

"Do you recognize the existence of this seal?" Aoba questioned, his voice carefully neutral as he produced a jade pendant sculpted in a specific geometry, akin to that of a key, with numbers carved on the surface.

It was an S-rank special mission order key.

"Yes." The Shimura answered after blankly observing the item for a few seconds.

The Hatake tugged twice on his link. The Shimura had decided to begin with honesty. No doubt he would then try to weave a complex lie. That was how the best of them were crafted: with a bit of truth at the heart.

"Did you use this seal recently?"

"No."

Kakashi internally frowned. The question was too large and Danzo could interpret it however he wanted. The Hatake tugged twice.

"Did you ever use it before your judgement? If so, when was the last time you used it?"

"I did, to encode mission orders for the fourth ANBU company. The last time I used it dates back to a few years, long before I was sent here."

Kakashi imperceptibly frowned as he tugged twice again. Danzo did not lie and the consequences were worrying. The fourth had been deactivated after the man's treason and its members scanned for their loyalty. Many were found guilty of being faithful followers of Danzo, rather than the Will of Fire and the Hokage, and had been dealt with.

Had some element of the Root escaped scrutiny? If Danzo had encoded the orders long in advance and entrusted them to one of his element, the missions could then have been activated at any time by the agent.

"What was the last order you encoded with it?"

"It is the reason I find myself here."

Kakashi tugged twice.

"I see. Of those missions you encoded, were some to take place in Konoha proper?"

"Yes."

Two tugs.

"Of those mission specific to Konoha, did you order anything that should have impacted the civilians?"

"No. Everything was a matter of internal security."

Two tugs.

"Did you order anything that impacted the clans?"

"Again, no. For the same reason."

One tug.

Aoba cleared his throat. "Did you order anything that could have impacted Konoha's forces?"

"I'd have no interest doing that."

Two tugs.

"Answer the question please."

"No, I would never."

One tug. Kakashi smiled minutely. They had him.

* * *

**AN: And cut. As this chapter has not been beta-read, I encourage you to leave a review. Not only will it satiate my never-ending hunger but it'll also give me raw feedback.**

**On an unrelated matter, I should not have published chapters 13 and 14 so close to each other. It gives the feeling I have some sort of planing but it is not the case. I write as it comes and sometimes it takes me longer.**

**AN2: You know, I was thinking the other day: what if Koharu or Homura had adopted Naruto. They don't hate him, they know what he is, they are respected advisors of the Hokage, they are not related to any powerful clan... They are the perfect candidates! Do any of you know of a (good) fanfiction where one of the two advisors raise Naruto? I think I'll write something once this is over.**

**AN3: I'd like to start a challenge of a sort. Would you all give me ideas for Toad specific jutsu? The Toads were always under-exploited and I plan on making good use of them. I've already three "original" moves in my bag, in addition to what was shown in the manga, but I'd be interested in what you can come up with. (Don't answer poison.)**

**See you all next time.**


	16. Chapter 16 Merry go round

**AN: I was on vacation so I did not publish for a while. I was waiting for my beta to go through this chapter (which has been ready for a little while) but unfortunately, he was too busy and I did not feel like looking for another beta. LK, I'm without news from you so I'll assume you are doing well.**

**Thanks to "guest" Kazekira for their absolutely useless review. It is not because you use nice words that your non-argument becomes any more valid. Your first sentence literally reads: "your story is shit because it's shit -I don't like it, it's shit- and your execution is shitty". You've been a tremendous help in your analysis, please don't do it again. But you are right of course: how dare I put challenges in the way of Naruto? How dare I make him train like the shonen protagonist he is? How dare I weave a plot that is not entirely related to Naruto that you are apparently blind to anyway? How dare I not throw Naruto immediately in a senseless, useless, tasteless storm of action?**

**The Naruto fandom likes to bath in mediocrity alright yet I'd like to thank you for taking the bath with us. You read until chapter 15 after all...**

* * *

The return to Konoha was a confused blur and Naruto could not say he remembered it, except for the fact he had been carried a part of the way after having collapsed from nervous exhaustion.

When the boy awoke, the first thing he knew for a fact was that he was not in Rice Country anymore. The blond could not tell if the exhaustion he was feeling was still a reminiscence of combat or due to the fact he had excessively slept. He did know he was beyond happy to be anywhere else than Rice Country though.

His keen ears picked the songs of various birds and his good nose smelled the unmistakable odor of medication and disinfectant that typically reigned supreme in a hospital.

"Where... Am I?" The boy asked aloud, his voice still rocky and raspy, his diction barely understandable.

"In the reserved section of Konoha military hospital. Today is the second of July and it is nine in the morning." A voice, deep and soothing, slightly raspy too, answered.

"Shlept... too late," groaned Naruto, his words slurred, still only half aware and entirely afraid of having missed his alarm. Tiger was going to kill him.

"No worries, you are currently on rest."

"Ish that sho?"

"Yes."

The boy nodded, still too asleep to bother identifying the voice. Doing his best to fully awaken himself, Naruto reflexively made his chakra surge once, before molding it in the specific fashion that served to open his tenketsu. His chakra surged a second time and the boy smiled contentedly as the inner energy started to flow everywhere, warming him up. It took a minute to chase the last cobwebs of sleep away and another to open his eyes.

"I'm sho thirshty." He croaked, realizing his throat was as dry as Wind Country.

Immediately, he felt a straw being pushed against his lips. Without asking himself too many questions -if whoever was here wanted him dead, there was no need to poison his drink- the boy drank avidly. Fresh, pure, delicious water flowed in his mouth and down his throat. Eventually satisfied, he pushed away the glass that was presented to him and turned his head toward whoever was by his side.

"Jijie?" The blond exclaimed in surprise before coughing violently, his throat protesting the sudden effort.

"Yes, my boy. How are you feeling?"

Naruto did not answer immediately and mentally took stock of what he was feeling. The memories piled suddenly upon him. Excitement and relief welled and surged forth. He was alive and back in Konoha. It was too much and his chest was too small to contain everything. He felt tears of joy slowly drip down his eyes and a mix between a sob and a laugh shook his body. He felt strong arms circling around him and engulfing him inside a hug.

"I'm alive. I'm alive." The blond repeated in his drawl, almost like a mantra, as if the reality of his situation was too unbelievable for him.

Having to wait nearly two weeks in that hole in Rice Country without being able to do anything had taken a heavier toll than he had thought. He hadn't realized how much he had been afraid.

Terrified, even, of not seeing Konoha again, of never being embraced by his grandfather, of missing on Ayame's ramen. It was something to know life was fleeting when one was a ninja; it was something else entirely to live through it. The truth was that he had very nearly died and it was crashing down on him now, when he was finally safe.

The blond took a few minutes to collect himself, still securely held in the arms of his grandfatherly figure, who kept whispering soothingly in his ear.

"You are back and safe Naruto, back and safe."

Eventually, the boy calmed himself and willed his arms to move in order to return the hug of his grandfather for a long minute, basking in the warmth and the contact. He had been so close never to experience that again. The thought churned his insides and he hugged his Jijie harder.

"How are you Naruto?"

The boy hesitated for a second. "I'm fine." He mumbled in the robes. Slowly he disentangled himself from his grandfather and looked at the older man in the eyes. "I'm fine." He repeated in his new drawl, swallowing thickly.

Hiruzen felt his heart split when he saw fear and wavering courage fight it out in the boy's eyes. The Hokage cupped the Naruto's cheek with his hand and sighed when the blond leaned in the contact. "You are not but I know you'll surmount it." The old Sarutobi said, locking gaze with the blue-eyed boy. "Just… Do not try to win this fight alone, Naruto. Can you promise me that?"

The boy nodded, contentedly rubbing the old, callused hand with his cheek, relishing the affection. Closing his eyes for a few seconds, Naruto inhaled deeply before he returned the Hokage's gaze. "I promise Jijie."

The Sarutobi nodded and hugged his surrogate grandson once again. "Good. Coming this close to both side of death is a harrowing experience."

Naruto returned the embrace and marveled at the strength his grandfather's old arms still possessed, at the warmth he exuded, at the beat of his heart still powerful.

"You've ever been… This close Jijie?"

"Yes. During the first Great War before I became Hokage. During the second as well."

Naruto modestly decided to not pry any further. He sure as Flame did not want to recount his death-yet-not and he would not make his grandfather relive his own experiences for his curiosity. He did not even want to know anyway.

"I…" The boy began only to close his mouth, unsure of what he even wanted to say in the first place. He had refused to see it sooner, refused to acknowledge it, because he knew that, had he done that, he would have gone off the far end in Rice Country.

There was a dark, viscous fear in the back of his mind and in the corner of his heart. The disgusting, unsightly fear of death. "How am I going to go back?" He eventually asked in a whisper, his eyes glazed and his voice shuddering, the question thrown as much to the Hokage as to himself.

"This is a question only you hold the answer to, Naruto." Hiruzen answered tiredly. "But I'm certain it is here," he said, trying to be as reassuring as he could.

"Here?" The blue-eyed blond asked weakly.

The old Kage tapped his finger against the boy's chest, just above the heart. "Why did you become a ninja, Naruto?"

The blond looked down, lost in his whirling thoughts. He had an easy answer to that question. Was it worth giving up his life for it? Was it egotistical to not want to? Was it cowardly to be afraid? He was shaken out of his thoughts by his grandfather. The boy locked gaze with the older man, cerulean blue meeting dark brown.

"It is alright to not answer it now. It might help if you talk. This hospital has an entire section of specialist but you also have people who hold you dear, Naruto. Never forget that and help yourself."

"Hai."

Silence fell and blanketed the room for a minute. Soon, the boy started to fidget uncomfortably, something apparently weighing on his mind.

"Jijie…" The boy eventually whispered through a constricted throat, his tone wavering and hesitant.

"Yes, Naruto?"

"I… We need to talk about It." He said, gesturing vaguely toward his stomach, his voice cracking on the last word.

"Tiger reported what happened to me Naruto. We can discuss it later, once you're-"

"N-no!" The blond moaned fearfully in an urgent whisper, panic rising slowly within him. "We can't wait. We can't."

"Alright, Naruto, calm yourself and breath." The Hokage enjoined firmly, gripping the boy's hand and holding it tightly, anchoring him.

Encouraged by his grandfather unwavering presence, the blond regulated his breathing and pushed back the panic and the fear. Deeply inhaling three times, the boy swallowed thickly and looked at the Sarutobi, his eyes holding a resolute shine.

"Thanks, Jijie."

"You're welcome, my boy. Now if you'll allow me…" Having said that, the Hokage sped through hand seals before his chakra surged. Black marking, seals, realized Naruto, etched themselves on the door and the window. "No one can hear us now."

The blond nodded. It was a good precaution considering what he was going to reveal. Taking another very deep breath, Naruto steeled his resolve.

"The Kyuubi. It talks." The boy breathed out. "It's… It's sentient." He whispered.

The Hokage gazed back at his surrogate grandson stoically, allowing nothing to show on his face just like the excellent ninja he was. Inside his skull, however, the gears were turning full speed.

Little was known of the Bijuu in general and of the Kyuubi even less. The very first time Konoha had jailed the beast away, it had been within Mito Uzumaki. But the Shodai's wife's seal was completely tight, which meant that, while the Kyuubi had no way to get out, Mito herself could not interact with the Fox.

Such were the laws of sealing. The prodigious Uzumaki had not wanted to risk using a fuinjutsu that allowed passage, and so she did not have access to the beast locked inside her.

The process had been repeated identically for Kushina, making use of the Uzumaki bloodline she possessed.

In Naruto's case, however, the massive eight pronged seal that kept the best at bay had a minuscule rift in its middle, to allow for the Kyuubi's chakra to trickle down in the boy's own tenketsu, expanding his reserves.

This aperture also meant that Naruto's chakra could potentially go up the seal. The boy could potentially meet with the beast, interact with it.

"Did you plan for that to happen, Minato?" The old man thought silently, wondering, not for the first time, why his predecessor had not opted for a tight seal. Had the Fourth Hokage known something Sarutobi did not? Did he simply want to give his only son power?

Had he actually panicked and made a mistake when designing the monstrosity of a seal Naruto sported today on his stomach? Equally powerful men had wavered in less stressful situations after all. Everyone was prone to errors, even the Kage.

The Kage doubly so, maybe.

"Tell me everything, Naruto." The old Hokage ordered in his business, no-nonsense voice.

The blond opened his eyes wide, his left hand nervously twirling the covers of his bed. "Where… Where should I begin?"

The Sarutobi took a second to think about the question before he answered. "Tell me about your first meeting."

The blond recoiled and, for a second, looked positively frightened before he took a deep breath. Centering himself, Naruto looked the Hokage in the eyes.

"Yes, Jijie."

* * *

Kakashi had his nose in his opened little orange book, giggling lowly in a rather creepy rendition of a schoolgirl. He had been doing just that for the last two hours but apparently, it was the last straw for Ibiki, who smashed his palm against the table.

"Hatake! Stop it with your acting, I can't hear myself think with your constant noises. Or if you must continue, then get out of here!"

The jonin lowered his book slowly, eyeing the head of T&I hard with his lone orb, only to be returned a glare. Kakashi sighed. That was the problem with Ibiki. While the chief interrogator wasn't a match for him, he feared no man. The Hatake withheld a groan -it wouldn't have been hip- and cocked his head to the side.

"You say something Ibiki?"

"I'm going to burn this book of yours. Before you invite me to just come and try it, you know full well how I operate. So make yourself useful or fuck off," retorted the gruff bear of a man.

Kakashi flipped his book around for a second, observing the cover, finding nothing.

"Where and how?"

"I'm not going to tell you that."

"You could be bluffing."

"You want to risk calling it?" Ibiki threatened, his eyes a thunderstorm.

Kakashi considered for another second his priceless, signed copy of Icha Icha Paradise and sighed. "No." The jonin closed the little book and stored it in the front pouch of his flak jacket. "So, what are we doing?"

Ibiki groaned. "You missed nothing Hatake, I know how you are. Get on with it."

"Why did I have to stop reading then?"

"Because the noises you make are worse than Gai's voice."

"Unyouthful," remarked said jonin in a grumbling whisper.

"Ouch." Kakashi commented in a monotone.

"Are we done?" The T&I head demanded, rubbing his temples in exasperation.

"I suppose. What do you need my help for anyway? What could I find that you didn't?" The white-haired jonin asked, apathetic. Kakashi was an excellent ninja, a well-rounded one at that, but Ibiki hands down had the best deductive mind of all Konoha.

Ibiki knew how to look underneath the underneath better than Kakashi.

"I need a fresh look on this because it leads nowhere alright? Your Sharingan trick was nice but in the end, it only gave us so much. We know Danzo was the one who encoded the S-ranked mission that was given to the Academy teachers. We know he did it years ago before he was even banished; it's a long term plan. We also know he admits it's something that goes against Konoha's interest. And that's not Danzo Shimura. What does it mean?"

Only silence answered the T&I chief as all jonin were lost in their own thoughts.

"There's something more to it." Gai offered eventually.

"Then what is it? We have nothing to go on from here. What are we looking for?" Ibiki thundered impatiently. The interrogator had been thinking in circles for the better part of a day and nerves were starting to show.

"You know…" Aoba stated hesitantly, slowly formulating his thoughts. "I still think it's too elaborate for a diversion."

Ibiki shifted and focused his gaze on the genjutsu specialist. "Go on."

"I do not know what started this investigation but we only discovered this scheme thanks to it. It would have continued otherwise."

"What do you deduce from that?"

"That the sabotage might have been a diversion but it had also an objective on its own."

"Weakening Konoha?" Gai asked.

"No," answered Aoba. "It's not Shimura' way, remember?"

"And he told the truth when he said he had no interest in weakening the village." Kakashi offered in a bored voice.

"People change," remarked Gai.

"Not when they are as old as he is. Rarely, at least." Ibiki countered. "And as Kakashi said, he did not lie about his convictions. So let's assume that Danzo actually did what he did for Konoha's best-"

"He admitted himself this action weakened us. Or rather, his heartbeat did."

"No!" Ibiki suddenly interrupted Aoba feverishly, his eyes wide in realization. "He admitted to it impacting Konoha's forces. Possibly negatively, given the way your previous question was worded. But he indeed told us what he perceives as the truth when he says it's not going against Konoha."

"So while the sabotage itself could possibly weaken Konoha, its true objective doesn't?" Gai asked, perplexed.

"Exactly," Ibiki answered.

Silence fell over the four men who mulled over the conclusion.

"Let's go with that, even if it's farfetched. We haven't progressed much though: we still do not know what the true objective of the sabotage was if there was even such a thing." Aoba said, scratching something in a notebook.

"Let's start from the beginning. What was the effect of the sabotage?" Kakashi asked rhetorically.

"It nearly condemned this year's new batch of teams," Gai answered.

"But it did not…" Ibiki said in a whisper. "It did not. It was caught before. The effective result is that the only teams who passed were those made of clan hairs or ninja-born hopefuls."

"It still weakens Konoha if the clan heirs are not educated." Aoba objected.

Kakashi's own visible eye widened as various gears fell into place. "No. I mean yeah but not really."

All three jonin turned toward the Hatake. "No?" Ibiki questioned pressingly as if knowing what the Hatake was thinking but wanting to hear it nonetheless.

"Of this year's batch of teams, only the hopefuls who were raised in a ninja family were accepted. I like to terrorize my genin by saying only a third only is accepted..."

"Which isn't true," cut Ibiki. "That's… Not… True. Yes. Konoha is weakened by the fact that only a few new teams were confirmed and no new blood was really introduced in the ranks. But ultimately, the teams that passed were all superior genin given to excellent jonin to counteract the sabotage. Kakashi taking care of the InoShikaCho, Asuma taking care of the two dojutsu wielders and the Inuzuka heir. You Aoba, watching over the Haruno and the Aburame."

"The result is fewer teams but all groomed by elite jonin." Gai summarized.

"But why go through the trouble of sabotaging the Academy for that? And we are still talking about a traitor who attempted to assassinate Lord Third as if he were perfectly loyal." Aoba protested.

"He is perfectly loyal to Konoha. Or his own idea of Konoha at least." Gai remarked.

"What's his idea of Konoha then? I thought Danzo was the most militant of all the old coots that still gravitate around the Hat. Reducing the number of successful teams doesn't really play to this!" The glasses-wearing jonin exclaimed.

"Because it's a distraction. A necessary sacrifice, one Danzo himself admits to it damaging Konoha. He knew we would try to rectify it. The real goal…" Ibiki muttered, his voice dying the more he spoke before falling completely silent. "This cunning old bastard." The head of T&I muttered in an almost appreciative tone.

"You have something?" Gai asked.

"Yes, I might. You're not cleared to know of it but I think there is a possibility the sabotage reached its actual goal already."

Kakashi trained his gaze on the scarred jonin, his piercing eye trying to piece for himself the conclusion Ibiki had reached. He was lacking a crucial element still.

What had kickstarted the whole investigation?

He watched as Ibiki got up and withdrew a rolled up piece of parchment from his long coat. The man spread the paper to reveal a seal specific to summoning. Pinning the four angle with as many shuriken, the T&I chief took another scroll, a storing tag this time, and unsealed its content.

After placing a fresh apple and a bottle of sake near the summoning scroll, Ibiki nicked his left thumb, ran through hand seals, and slammed his left hand on the scroll.

In a puff of billowing smoke, a small monkey appeared. Ibiki immediately bowed to the animal as the summoning parchment started to consume itself into ashes.

"Saru-sama. Please accept this food and drink as offerings. I need your help to pass a message to one of your summoner, Hiruzen Sarutobi, who lent me this scroll of summoning."

The monkey observed the apple for a second before he took a bite from the fruit then a swig from the bottle of sake. With a satisfied burp, the summon turned to Ibiki.

"What is your message, friend-of-my-summoner?"

Ibiki leaned above the monkey and, carefully hiding his lips, whispered something so low, none of the other three jonin could hear it.

Kakashi frowned. What was so secret that Ibiki did not trust them with it? Was the head of T&I maybe not even allowed to share it with them? As an elite jonin, the Hatake was certainly unused to be outside the loop.

With a nod, the monkey took the apple and ate it in three quick bites before taking the bottle of sake -"for the road"- and darting away at a blinding speed.

Silence fell over the four men who eyed each other for a moment before Aoba broke it. "So? Does that mean we're done here?"

"It means we wait for Hokage-sama's answer," Ibiki answered. "Time for some time with your respective team, don't you think?"

Aoba and Gai nodded, the taijutsu specialist pumping his fist with enthusiasm, and left. Kakashi intently eyed the T&I chief for another five long seconds.

"You're not going to tell me anything?"

"Sorry not sorry, Hatake. Hokage's direct orders." Ibiki countered with a shake of his head.

The white-haired jonin sighed. "Alright, fair enough," said Kakashi as he rose from his seat and departed.

* * *

Hiruzen Sarutobi sighed as he fell in his seat in an exhausted heap. For a full minute, the old Kage rubbed his closed eyes and the edge of his nose, desperately trying to fend off the migraine he could feel coming.

"Get me Dragon. Immediately."

Shadows shifted and the air moved, signifying the departure of an ANBU. Minutes later, the door opened and the commander of the special force entered the Hokage office.

"Out, everyone, now," ordered the supreme leader of Konoha, who was wordlessly obeyed again. "Dragon, barrier if you please."

The ANBU general flashed through hand seals and the air shimmered for a second before settling into a strange, otherworldly stillness.

"What is it?"

Hiruzen sighed. "Apart from the fact that a boy I consider my grandson nearly died on his second mission?" The Hokage asked tiredly. "Apart from the fact his right hand his useless for anything else than punching? That he is now traumatized?" The old man continued more animatedly. "Apart from the fact he used the Kyuubi's power? Apart from the fact I nearly lost him?!" Hiruzen bellowed furiously before inhaling a large breath. "Everything is fine," concluded the aged leader in a conversational tone.

It seemed as if only silence would answer him before the ANBU general broke it.

"I can go back to my headquarters then?" Dragon asked as lightly as his deformed voice allowed him.

Hiruzen snorted. "You could stop being an ass for a second?"

"If you increase my budget by five percent I might consider it."

"Why are you my friend?"

"Because you need someone witty by your side, otherwise you'd have lost it years ago."

Hiruzen eyed the masked ANBU incredulously. "Right."

Dragon sat and laced his fingers. "What is your concern, Hiruzen?"

"That it wasn't such an excellent idea to trust Naruto into ANBU."

"Why would you say that?" Dragon asked, his voice betraying nothing but neutrality.

"Why would I- By the Flames Dragon he nearly died!"

"And as his grandfather, you are worried about that. As Hokage, you know perfectly well that ninja die on missions. It's our way of life."

"Naruto is too important to lose during a stupid incursion in Rice Country."

"Missions always go wrong. Can you give me a non D-rank operation that did not go pear-shaped in some way? No, you can't. We can gather information, formulate plans, in the end, it doesn't survive the action. Naruto is a jinchuriki but you did not want to use him as such and I respect that. But he is a ninja. Are you going to keep him secure in a cage to keep him safe?"

"He got brain damages! He is not even thirteen and he is already suffering from brain damage!"

"And Kakashi became a cyclops at fourteen and his replacement eye sucks all life from him in five minutes top. Gai is nearly deaf since he is fifteen and it's not improving. Your son had his back so badly burnt at sixteen he needed five different grafts before it took hold. I could go on. Hiruzen, all our best ninja have some form of disability. It is the life we have chosen." Dragon said, his tone patient but firm.

"I know that. I…"

"Just wish it weren't like that. But that is the grandfather speaking. As long as you wear this hat, you cannot make the decisions solely based on what a grandfather would do. Even if you could, it's his life, not yours. Why not be grateful that he only lost the use of his right hand and has returned alive?"

"I know," sighed Hiruzen. "I loathe when you are right. It's just… I thought it was Sora all over again."

Dragon clasped the old Kage's forearm firmly and squeezed reassuringly. "We know in our hearts that no parent should bury their children. But the truth of the matter is that we chose a warrior's life and there is nothing to save us from this reality. Hold onto the Will of Fire, Hiruzen. I trust that if Naruto must lay down his life, he'll do so for a cause he believes in. Do you?"

The Sarutobi inhaled deeply. "Yes. Thank you my friend."

"That's what friends are for. Now, what is your concern?"

Hiruzen fell silent and massaged his temples for a while, visibly organizing his thought and pushing his worries down. The old leader laced his fingers for a few seconds before they reflexively fetched his pipe. The Kage absentmindedly prepared his smoke and lit it before he puffed a big cloud of odorant smoke with a satisfied noise.

"The Kyuubi is an intelligent being capable of speech."

Dragon froze for a full minute as his mind processed this new piece of information. Eventually, his brain returned nothing satisfying so the man swore loudly, slapped his forehead, swore again while shaking his hand before he eventually rose from his chair and started pacing around the office. A minute of silence settled between the two men.

"Fuck," offered Dragon at some point.

"I'd say shit but that summarizes it pretty well."

"We always thought it was nothing but a mindless beast."

"I know."

"We always thought Madara had somehow tamed it."

"I know."

"It means that either Madara convinced the Fox to attack-"

"Or that he had a way to control it. Would that be possible?"

Dragon stopped pacing. "No? Yes? How would I know Hiruzen. How do you go about controlling something like a Bijuu?"

Hiruzen shrugged. "Genjutsu."

"The thing is an ever-moving mass of chakra. No genjutsu would take hold on that. And genjutsu manipulates chakra in the target's brain. The Kyuubi doesn't have a brain."

"Well, how do we even know that? What about Madara's eyes?"

"No. No, they would not have been enough. I can guarantee that."

Dragon fell on his seat and silence once again blanketed the office.

"So. The Kyuubi helped Madara voluntarily." Hiruzen stated.

"No. Remember what Shodai-sama and Mito-sama used to say. The Kyuubi fought like a mindless beast and signs pointed to it following Madara's compulsions. Yet, if he is a sentient being…"

"It means he was robbed of his thoughts somehow, which brings us back to genjutsu. You're positive that the traitor's eyes could not put a bijuu under?"

Dragon sighed and massaged his temples. "I don't know. From a theoretical point of view, it would not make sense."

"But?"

"But we just learned the Kyuubi actually isn't a mindless monster like we thought before. Much has been lost about the powers of the eyes or never even discovered in the first place. Did Madara find a way to make them powerful enough to have a bijuu at his beck and call? Possibly."

"What do you truly have in mind?" The Hokage asked, long since used to deciphering when his subordinate and long-time friend was not telling him something.

Dragon hesitated, rose from his chair, made a full circle around the room, before flopping down in his chair again. "A third party."

"The one truly controlling the Kyuubi?" Hiruzen hazarded.

"Or the one who gave Madara the ability to do so." The ANBU commander offered.

The old Kage sighed. "That complicates things. That complicates things immensely. Who could even do that? Madara and Shodai-sama were supposed to be without equal."

The two shinobi fell into silent contemplation. It was Sarutobi who broke the peace with a sharp inhale.

"Could it be… Could it be related to your incident?"

Dragon looked up. There was only one thing his friend would call _his incident_. The ANBU commander analyzed the idea for a full minute. He still had no certainty as to what the mysterious enemy had been after. Could it have been the eyes of his people? It was a distinct possibility, the most immediate and the reason the incident had been ordered. Had the enemy known of a way to cultivate the eyes further?

Dragon shook himself like a dog; losing himself in conjectures would do him no good right now. "We can dig deeper later. Is there anything we should do immediately?"

"I already contacted Jiraiya. He will be here in two to three weeks."

Dragon fell silent, contemplating something. "Perfect. Team Ro is temporarily suspended from active duty. It'll give Naruto the time he needs to adapt."

"You have something for him? To help him?"

"Of course. Remember what Kirigakure's specialty is?"

"Swordsmanship of cour-" Hiruzen interrupted himself with a smile slowly blossoming on his lips. "Of course not. Brilliant. You'd give him the book?"

"I already did. It's going to be imperative for him to learn them."

"That's a clan treasure."

"One my clan never exploited anyway. He has no choice but to make use of it and he is talented and bullheaded enough to succeed."

Hiruzen smiled fully. "Right."

* * *

Naruto was quickly released from the hospital after a battery of tests and assessments that found him fit for duty. The blond and his team were momentarily suspended from active duty for three weeks, a time span Naruto had to use to the best of his ability to recuperate, train himself further, and compensate for what he had lost.

A number of sessions with iryonin were scheduled in order to work around his vertigo and his speech impediment, something the physicians were positive could be restored. The boy had even been offered a face-to-face with a Yamanaka, which he had accepted. Talking about his kills and the doubts that came with it, about the ghosts that were haunting him, about the fear that now lurked in the back of his mind, all of it had been immensely liberating.

Only his right hand did not seem to want to heal. He could still form a fist or open a palm but anything subtler than that was lost. It meant he could still punch and grab though, so it was not too bad. Fine motions, like flicking a shuriken or hand signs, were impossible for now and he lacked the touch to truly use his chokuto or a brush effectively.

Tiger greeted him first thing in the morning on the first day of training with a hand on his shoulder, an appreciative nod, and a book about a foreign, secret, stolen method that would help the blond overcome his handicap. Naruto caught the man in a hug, snatched the book, and fled before his squad leader could deck him. The boy worked his ability for the Shadow Clones jutsu in a single day.

Not that it was complicated given he could perform the technique sealless if given enough time.

Fuuton: Wind Bullet and Great Breakthrough came back to him three days later but Naruto was not content with getting his ninjutsu back, of course. The blond threw himself in kenjutsu training with a rare intensity, requesting from Tiger the permission to attend some sessions as himself and from Cat to make those sessions more demanding. Both ANBU had accepted.

When the end of the first week came, Naruto had recuperated from his week and a half of lounging in the shack of Rice Country and had even broken his own endurance record on the Warmer.

Sunday was his day of rest though and the boy had been warned he would not cut it. Tiger, Cat, and Dog had seen to it that his fire was fanned appropriately but all three of his teachers had insisted rest was just as important for him as anyone else. Hence, he was supposed to take it easy, a suggestion he had decided to respect, to a certain extent.

After running up the Warmer in forty minutes, a full hour of chakra control, strength, and speed building exercises, and another of pure taijutsu and kenjutsu kihon, the blond exited his barrack, leaving behind two clones practicing left-handed calligraphy and another practicing more kenjutsu drills under the watchful eyes of a fourth.

It was still relatively early and Konoha was not really awake yet. It was Sunday anyway and the village would not be truly active today, as it was a day of rest for everyone, save ninja on assignment. Naruto took a deep breath in and started to walk, without a set destination in mind.

He was not certain bothering the Ichiraku was acceptable at this hour. He knew they were open already of course but he would go eat lunch there, no use imposing on them before that.

Knowing Konohamaru, the little tyke was still sleeping in. Apparently, his cousin Ichiro was on a mission. It was his grandfather's only morning of rest so Naruto was not about to go and bug the Sandaime.

He had no friends from the Academy to visit because he had had no friends in the Academy, period. The only two he wanted to see, Shikamaru and Choji, were away on a mission.

He had things to think about anyway and motion was his preferred state of being to do so. Namely, how he was going to "even the field" when faced with stronger opponents, practically speaking.

He was brought out of his -rather fruitful, in his opinion- musing nearly an hour later by the sound of dogs barking. The blond whirled around; he had felt them coming, of course, having carefully maintained his awareness of his surroundings. Naruto smiled as the Haimura trio piled up over him with joyful yips. His face was soon dripping with canine saliva.

"Hello guys." The blond greeted, scratching the war-hounds behind their ears, careful to be fair in his ministrations.

La whined a bit and carefully bit his right hand, the hound's fangs not even scratching the skin.

"Ha you heard of course. No worry, I'm alright," answered Naruto before he cocked his head to the side. "Hello, Inuzuka-san." The boy greeted, not having to look behind him to know who was standing there.

"Hello, Uzumaki-san," responded the unmistakable voice of Dog.

The boy rose from the ground, turned to face his ANBU teammate, and bowed slightly. It wasn't the first time he was seeing without her mask: they had violated this taboo during their time in Rice and they had been both admonished by Dragon for it. It was the first time he was seeing her wearing anything civilian though.

Dog was seventeen, maybe eighteen, had an oval face and soft features that made for a pleasant visage. She bore the traditional, fang-like marking of her clan on her cheeks. There was no doubt she was an Inuzuka but he did not even know if she lived in the compound. He did not even know if her clan knew she was an ANBU. He still did not know her name, which was the reason Dragon's punishment had been so light.

That and the act Dog had argued that she had acted as his physician first and foremost and as such, implicit trust had to be established. Something a mask would have prevented. She had winked at the blond on their way out.

Naruto fidgeted slightly, unsure of what to do before Dog broke the silence. "Would you like to walk with me, Uzumaki-san?"

"Ah? Sure!" The boy immediately answered. He had not much better to do for now. He had to let the ideas he had cooked up sink in and simmer.

The two fell in pace as they followed the whimsical journey imposed by the trio of war-hounds.

"You're up early," remarked Dog in a conversational tone.

"Not really. I can't sleep in anymore. It was beaten out of me I think."

The teenager snickered her amusement. "Yeah, I know what you mean. It was hard for me. We Inuzuka are not morning people."

Naruto smiled. "Even with all the oinin in your ranks? Don't you have to rise early to catch scum?"

"Trust me, every last one of us has it beaten out of them."

The boy kept his smile on. In fact, he had never been a big sleeper. He had always had too much energy. The fact he had been regularly late in the academy had everything to do with his sleeping habits but nothing with sleeping in.

It was pretty hard for a lone kid to fall asleep in an empty apartment but people did not seem to realize that.

"Do you have to beat out of the hounds too or are they more disciplined than their companions?" The blond joked.

"They are way worse, Uzumaki-san. Way worse." The Inuzuka answered with a little grin.

"So. What is it you actually do, Inuzuka-san?"

"Oh, I work at the hospital with a special division of iryonin. I work on special chemicals. Can't say much more."

Naruto nodded. That sounded like something absolutely not for him. He was a thought away from dismissing it with an exaggerated grimace but stopped. "You know your way around chemistry huh?" The boy asked, his left hand twitching apparently at random.

The teenager frowned slightly. "Yeah, I'm not too bad." She said, both her hands twitching minutely too.

Naruto hummed. "Do you think it would be possible for you to help me for a project of mine? I've never been too good myself."

"If I find time between my assignments, then yes. But shouldn't you ask one of your teacher at the Academy?"

"I'm quite sure you'll prove to be more qualified than them, Inuzuka-san." Naruto assured with a bright smile.

The girl's hands twitched furiously and the blond boy snorted before ducking when the Inuzuka took a swing at him.

"You brat."

"You're not that much older than me, Inuzuka-san," retorted Naruto, showing her his tongue.

"That just disprove it, entirely."

"Does not."

"Does too."

"Does n-"

"What the Flames are you doing with my sister, dead-last?" The rude call, delivered in the hoarse, changing voice of a male teenager, was laced with aggressivity.

Coming toward them was Kiba Inuzuka, his little white dog Akamaru roosted on top of his head. Dog facepalmed just as Naruto registered what the meaning of Kiba's declaration was.

The blond turned to his teammate, who apparently was no other than Hana Inuzuka, daughter of the Inuzuka matriarch, and sister of the waste of space that was Kiba. The famous Hana, who her brother kept bragging about during their days at the Academy. Or rather, Kiba kept bragging about how he'd seduce his sister's friends and "become a real man". The blue-eyed boy bit on his lower lip in order not to laugh and his left hand twitched once.

_Sorry_.

Hana produced a sound that was somewhere between a groan and a whine.

"I'm discussing with a fellow ninja, Kiba. Is that a problem?" The blond asked carefully, willing to give the Inuzuka boy a chance to drop the hostility.

"What could you discuss with my sister, dead-last? You're too dumb for her!"

The brown-haired boy had dropped his direct attacks on Naruto getting a hitai-ite after his jonin sensei, Asuma, had threatened him but the Inuzuka had simply resorted to simpler, tested means of bullying: insulting Naruto's intelligence and indirectly questioning the legitimacy of his status as a ninja.

It had been quite trendy during his days at the Academy for other students to do the same. No teacher save Iruka had cared enough to curb it. Even Iruka himself had apparently never truly seen it as bullying as he had never acted to make it stop entirely. Just children playing with each other, nothing to worry about.

Naruto gave the Inuzuka boy a smile. "Oh, she was simply telling me how you wet your bed until you were eight." He said conversationally.

"What?" The other boy sputtered, looking as if he had just been hit squarely. "How did you even kn-"

"Yeah, and you reeked so bad, your cousins started to call you "Pissy-boy", hilarious really."

Naruto did not know what he expected, really. He had been trusted into ANBU, had been beaten black and blue until discipline and self-control had become ingrained, had been trained until chakra exhaustion for a month and a half, and had nearly lost his life on his second mission.

He knew that normal genin were not treated like that. He knew they were not being pressured nearly as much as he was. Somehow, he was still disappointed when Kiba become red with rage and angrily stomped toward him, the Inuzuka boy's fist clenched white.

"Say that to my face again?" The boy hurled at the blond, his face inches from Naruto's, his two hands holding the blond's collar, and his spit flying everywhere.

"Alright Kiba, that's enough!" Hana thundered, a hint of urgency mixed in with her anger. "You needlessly antagonized Uzumaki-san here and he teased back. If you can't take it, go back to pissing your bed!"

"You gonna defend him?!" Kiba roared in disbelief.

"Yes and if you don't drop it now, you can be sure I'll report your behavior to the matriarch!" Hana roared even louder, her blazing glare silencing her brother. Her was it her threat to tell on him to their mother?

Whatever it was, the Inuzuka boy took a step back. "Tch. Always relying on others to speak for yourself, coward." He said as a last parting shot before turning his back and walking away.

Naruto's left hand twitched but the repeated whines and the tongue lapping it, courtesy of La, slowly relaxed him.

"Thank you for not gutting my brother, Naruto."

"This fucking moron." The boy answered, disappearing the kunai his left was gripping in his sleeve. "He did not even see them and he calls himself a ninja."

Hana sighed. "I apologize for his behavior, I'll talk to our mother-"

"You have nothing to apologize for. I should not have answered him. That being said, he is going to get himself killed if he flies off the handle so easily like that."

Hana smiled hesitantly. "Let's say sleeping in is not the only bad habit that needs to be punched out of us Inuzuka."

The blond grinned at that. "I can't imagine you were that bullheaded."

The teenage girl snorted. "Yeah, maybe my brother is a bit of an extreme case. Just, remember he is not… In the same tracks as you."

"He is a brat."

"So are you."

"You're supposed to agree with me here, Inuzuka-san." Naruto protested, mock hurt in his voice.

"I'm not supposed to do anything." Hana retorted. "Brat." She added as an afterthought.

"Mean mutt."

"I wouldn't push my luck, Uzumaki-san." The Inuzuka said with a freezing smile, an aura of danger seeping around her before she returned to normal when Naruto raised his hands in surrender. "Good. how did you even know about Kiba and his bed problem."

"I did not crown myself the Prankster King for nothing, Inuzuka-san. Do you want to know what I have on you?"

For a split second, Hana considered murdering her teammate on the spot, to hell with the consequences, if it could avoid her being blackmailed with something unmentionable. The fall out of such an act quickly out-weighted a few possibly embarrassing revelation and the girl decided that the life of a missing-nin was not for her.

"No."

"Wise decision, mean mutt."

"What-"

"I wouldn't push my luck, Inuzuka-san," interrupted the blond boy in a convincing imitation of her frosty smile.

Hana silently swore before she smiled. "Not bad, Uzumaki-san. Not bad. You actually have nothing on me, do you?"

"Where would be the fun if I told you?" The boy answered with a laugh before he hunched his back and whispered directly into Hana's ear. "Fear not, your secrets are safe with me, especially this little pink-"

A hand crashed against Naruto's mouth and the boy was soon in a chokehold, courtesy of Hana, who was squeezing seriously hard, only to relax when she felt the tip of a senbon tickling the skin above her liver.

"How much?" She whispered.

"I know a good ramen stand not too far away. How about we have some lunch there?" offered Naruto in a conversational tone. "I could go for some company."

"Deal," agreed the Inuzuka as she relaxed her hold and freed the boy completely. "I'll pay."

Naruto grinned widely. "You are offering that of your own free will." He said, curiously foreboding despite his carefree tone, sauntering away.

* * *

**AN: This chapter 16 was originally a monster that I cut. Chapter 17 is on its way, very soon. Leave a review if you're inclined. After all, I'm apparently "comment farming". Is it my fault I feed on them, though? ;-)**

**(I'd like to say that feedback is absolutely necessary for us authors, be it to better ourselves or simply for motivation. Those who say they "only write for themselves" are nonsensical liars: if they were "writing for themselves" they would not publish their work (here or anywhere) in the first place.)**


	17. Chapter 17 For a handful of ryo

**This chapter comes early as thanks for the crazy support you showed to the last one. Holy Flames, it was amazing. Lemme repeat that: amazing! I hope I can keep you entertained with this one.**

**I will put a warning here: this chapter is part of the reason this story is rated M.**

* * *

The days passed and resembled each other; Naruto kept training furiously as he waited with growing anticipation for the Toad Sage to come back to Konoha. The blond, with the help of Dog, developed an array of what he called "portable traps", little more than pranking supplies cranked up to eleven and turned deadly. They were to be his way of evening up a fight.

Naruto also visited Asuma, under the cover of his mask, in order to learn more about wind manipulation and the jonin was a tremendous help, and not only for his insight in ninjutsu: the bearded man showed the young ANBU he still had much to learn as far as dissimulation went. The boy left, sheepish but determined to do better and eager to master wind chakra.

The secret of wind cutting was to create two incredibly fast, extremely thin, opposite, grinding air-flows. When applied on a target, the opposite pressure fields would rip it apart. The next step was all about fiddling with the notion of vacuum -the absence of air and wind- and play possible combination without killing oneself but Naruto was not there yet. Following Asuma's directive, the blond made quick progress during the third week.

Naruto and a bunch of five Shadow Clones cut through a ton of leaves, shearing them so cleanly one could not tell they were, and adapted the refined wind manipulation to his kenjutsu while another group explored the concept of pressure itself. When the convocation to the Hokage's office came, the blond, shirtless and his pants rolled up, was already working on splitting the water of a pond.

"Maru," the voice of Tiger interrupted the blond's absolute focus and made him turn toward his leader and teacher. "Jiraiya-sama and Hokage-sama are waiting for you in the Hokage's office."

The blond lost no time and, after a series of Body Flickers, Tiger and he found themselves in front of their leader's office.

Naruto took in the sight of the office in a second. His grandfather, the Hokage, was sitting behind his desk. Standing behind him was Dragon. On the side, leaning against a wall, was a giant of a man, made taller by the wooden geta he was wearing, dressed in a muted green gi with a red, sleeveless haori on top. A mane of white hair cascaded on his back, held back by a headband with the kanji for oil on it. The Toad Sage, Jiraiya of the Sannin, an S-ranked ninja. A living legend.

A living legend that was currently sporting an easy going, relaxed grin, making him appear many times less intimidating to mundane eyes. It did not escape the blond's sense, however, that the man was an absolute monster possessing more raw power than even the old Hokage. Naruto felt a cold chill run down his spine. He was infinitely glad this man was an ally.

The ANBU commander ran through hand signs and the air shimmered in the room. The blond immediately identified a barrier type fuinjutsu.

"You may remove your mask Naruto."

The boy obeyed the Hokage's command without question, revealing his bright blond hair, his cerulean blue eyes, and his heart-shaped face adorning his six whisker-like marks. The old man had called him Naruto so there was nothing Dragon could do and the Hokage was the big boss anyway.

"So this Naruto huh?" The Toad Sage asked, seemingly more to himself than anyone in the room. "Well, let's get to work. Show me your seal gaki."

The blond nodded, removed his shirt, and turned to face Jiraiya. He felt the ninja seize him up with a glance. He saw him give an almost imperceptible nod that froze minutely when the Sanin's eyes noticed the thin line over his throat. The giant man promptly gathered himself, so fast Naruto was not sure if he had not just dreamed his hesitation, and nodded again.

Had Jiraiya of the Sannin… Approved of him? Before Naruto could think any deeper, the man was crouching in front of him, still nearly reaching the boy's shoulder.

After probably twenty minutes of silence only broken by Jiraiya's humming, the Toad Sage finally propped himself up and nodded.

"Alright, good news, bad news." The man exclaimed suddenly, motioning his hands like a balance.

A bit taken aback, Naruto found himself stammering for a second before. "B-bad news?"

"It's going to be easier for you to find yourself dragged in the seal."

The boy swallowed thickly. He did not want that. "Good news?"

"That's perfectly normal and there is no risk of the Kyuubi getting out by himself. The canal has just been… Enlarged." The man answered, giggling at the end.

Naruto ignored the salacious joke and breathed out, his shoulders sagging a little. He was not going to be devoured by a chakra entity anytime soon and that was mighty good news, in his personal opinion. Some kind of shared relief washed over the room for a few seconds before the Hokage clapped in his hands.

"Good. Very good. Tiger, Maru, your team is hereby returned to active, effective immediately," said the old Kage, brandishing a signed order to the sergeant. "You are free to go."

Naruto pulled his shirt back on, secured his mask over his visage, saluted with Tiger and moved out.

"So Jiraiya." The Hokage said conversationally.

The Toad Sage sighed. "He looks so much like his mother, it's terrifying. Except for the hair and eyes of course. And the… Whiskers?"

The Sarutobi nodded. "Indeed. As for the whiskers, I believe it is the influence of the Kyuubi's chakra during birth."

Jiraiya nodded absentmindedly. "So, ANBU huh? Why?" He asked suddenly, a bit of an edge in his tone. He had noticed the scar the boy was sporting. On his throat. His god damned throat.

"Because he is a well of potential that was nearly wasted," answered Dragon.

"But was it truly necessary?" The Toad Sage asked, his voice insistent.

"Given the circumstances, yes," said the ANBU commander, almost snarkily, making the Toad Sage blink.

"And you approved of that, Sensei?" Jiraiya asked to the Sandaime, incredulity shining in his slanted, black eyes, the edge of anger making his voice vibrate.

"I was not on it at first but my friend here presented me with very convincing arguments. And there is no denying the progress he has shown in a mere three months."

"He could have been placed on a normal team, Sensei! He should-"

"No," interrupted Hiruzen before Dragon could. "No, Jiraiya. I fear for his life everyday since he joined the corps but he still lives and he grows stronger. On the contrary, had he joined a regular team, he would never have been ready for what is to come."

"There was time Sensei," exclaimed Jiraiya reproachfully. "Hell, there is still time-"

"I think it would be better if your student had all the pieces, don't you think so Hiruzen?" Dragon interrupted.

The Sandaime nodded. "Indeed I do."

* * *

The next day, Naruto ran through a reduced morning routine before he and his team were called in the commander's office.

"Team Ro," began the ANBU general without much preamble. "There has been some new advancement in the investigation. Our analysts discovered fake Ryo typically forged in the Land of Onsen in the money given to the bandits by those Otonin."

Naruto nodded: this was giving credit to his hypothesis of a human trafficking ring in Hot Water Country. Or at least partially located in Hot Water Country. Illegal activities were more often than not like those nesting doll from Frost: there was always another layer behind the previous one.

"Your mission is to infiltrate Yugakure and find clues about how this money was in the possession of an unknown force of ninja in Rice. You're looking for anything linking this… Sound village to any lucrative traffic. The more we know about their businesses, the more we know about them."

"Sir, if I may?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, Maru?"

"Isn't slavery supposedly forbidden in the Land of Onsen?"

Dragon nodded curtly. "Yes but the Land of Hot Water has been the base for all kind of black market activities since their ninja village stopped being one and it is well known their authorities are rather… Complacent. They make a proper margin on everything that circulates there."

"Mhh, if that is so, why didn't we tidy the place up yet?"

The commander snorted and his answer chilled Naruto. "Are you really so naive, Maru?"

The boy swallowed thickly.

"Anything else?" asked the general.

"No sir," answered Tiger curtly.

"Very well. Dismissed." The ANBU commander slammed a red stamp on a piece of paper and gave a folder to Tiger. "And dispatched. Now go."

The team lost no time and gathered in the same briefing room they had prepared in for the Rice Country mission.

"We will move as civilian. We need to hide our weaponry and preferably only take small arms. Senbon and shuriken should be perfect. Everything else we either leave here or seal away."

"I can prepare enough sealing tag for everyone, taicho, if I'm given the materials."

"Your left hand is trained enough for that?"

"Yes, sir," confirmed Naruto.

"We'll make good on that then."

"What will be our cover?" Cat asked.

"Street performers."

"Wait," interrupted Naruto, suddenly realizing something. "I'll… We move unmasked?"

"Yes, initiate."

"But… Isn't that a problem?"

"You've seen each of our face during the mission in Rice, Maru. Seeing them again won't cause a problem."

Oh. That made sense, the blond supposed. Naruto nodded before he scratched his head in embarrassment. "Huh, I don't have anything to perform."

"We can iron it out on the road but what about knife throwing?" Cat proposed.

Tiger nodded in agreement. "You're talented enough at shurikenjutsu. Cat and I will show you some tricks to make it a bit more… Spectacular."

"What are our names and how are we related?" Dog inquired.

Tiger opened the folder. "Read who you are here." The ANBU looked at Naruto. "You need to know it by heart. We will question you on the road, there need to be no hesitation. Understood?"

"Hai, taicho."

"Good. Reading time, ladies and gents."

* * *

A group of four civilians was traveling, as fast as civilians possibly could, on the main road that linked the east of Fire Country to the Land of Onsen. They all wore worn-out garb, carried rather bulky backpacks, and all had the marks and roughness of people used to live outdoor.

One, a brown-haired kid, was demonstrating rather impressive dexterity by juggling one-handedly with three throwing knives while walking, under the watchful gaze of a taller, older male. Both were tanned in the same way, both had shaggy, short, dark hair, and both bore a distant resemblance to each other. One would peg them as family without too much question.

A woman, around the man's age, was tuning an expensive looking instrument, no doubt carved in some precious wood of Fire Country. Despite evidence to a life of constant travel, she was a rare beauty, with flowing red hair the color of autumn leaves and deep green eyes.

The last of the groupe was a girl in her teenage years who was holding three hoops and commanding three dogs to jump through them, encouraging the animals with shouts and vigorous exclamations. She was tomboyish, with short-cropped hair and a constant grin adorning her face that said: "come at me, Life".

"You're doing well Menma," said the tall man with several nods of approval. "A chance you're agile with both your hands."

"Thanks, Kinoe-aniki!" The boy answered with enthusiasm, his eyes riveted to the knives dancing around him.

"Keep at it and you'll be ready to show off in Yugakure." Kinoe answered, still nodding.

"Neh, Kinoe," called the musician in a drawn out, very suggestive tone. "I'll need to change my koto's strings." The woman's eyelash fluttered as she sauntered toward the older male. "You'll pay for it, right?" She asked, coiling herself against the man's side.

Kinoe stiffened and a strange, lost look fogged his eyes for a second before a completely stupid smile blossomed on his face. "Sure, my sweet Yuuki," said the man as he leaned for a kiss.

The woman simply shied away, giggling. "Kinoe, darling, not here on the road," she said, her voice a mix between a playful startlement and virginal plea, drawing a pout from the man.

"Stop doing that you skank," growled the teenage girl.

"Shut up, Nana," retorted Yuuki. "No one asked you."

"Yeah Nana, stop being mean to my Yuuki!"

"She is leading you by the nose bro, by Benten's tits why can't you see it? She is milking you!" The girl exclaimed furiously, her dogs growling behind her.

The red-headed woman yelped in fright and ran behind Kinoe, who looked at the teenage girl furiously. "Nana, stay the dogs! And it's not your say who I'm with!" The man chastised. " And don't swear!" He added after a second of reflexion.

"Huh, Bro, Sis, err…" The boy tried to interject, only to be ignored completely by his two older siblings.

Yuuki smirked as she started to insult Nana, still safely hidden behind Kinoe. The group kept bickering as they travelled the dusty road toward Yugakure, ancient hidden village of the Land of Onsen, nowadays a prosperous touristic town, and well-known capitale of all kinds of sins.

After an entire day of intense walk, only interrupted by a short pause for beef jerky and water, the four troubadours found themselves sharing a room in an inn. It was a modest hotel located in a small town the great eastern road passed through.

"Something wrong Menma?" asked Kinoe to his younger brother as he settled his backpack and opened it.

"I'm just amazed by how you do it," responded the boy with a look of utter confusion on his face. "Or creeped out. I don't really know," added Menma thoughtfully.

"Well, be amazed later, or you'll be distracted." Kinoe chided. "And it's not nice to say your big bro is creepy."

"I was more thinking about Yuuki."

Kinoe opened his mouth to say something, closed it, and thought for a second, his face a mask of intense reflexion. "She kinda is, huh?" The man said eventually.

Menma stared incredulously at his older brother, until he saw the tiny little smirk tugging Kinoe's lips upward. The sight made the brown-haired boy broke into a grin. "Whoa, is that a joke aniki?"

"Don't say it to her or you're dead meat."

"Hai hai."

"You know, you are rather good yourself. I expected you to slip more." Kinoe said, opening a folded shirt.

Menma looked down. "Yeah… I learned when I played my games, you know."

The man silently rummaged through his backpack, eyeing the younger boy pensively. "I see," eventually said Kinoe.

The boy looked up. "It's actually pretty fun!"

"Well, glad you think that." Yuuki interrupted suddenly, exiting the bathroom wrapped in a towel. "But try not to have too much fun on the job."

Menma stared at the redhead woman, his mouth gaping a little. Apparently not noticing, the woman removed her towel and vigorously dried her hair before she threw it unceremoniously on her bed and started searching her pack for a set of clothing. The boy vaguely felt his face heat up a little at the sight of the naked woman, not really knowing why.

It was actually the first time he was seeing a girl of any age entirely naked. He had bathed with other men before but never with any women and he was not really welcomed in any of the public hot springs he could visit. The boy felt a strange shudder of excitement course through him, something that confused him entirely too much to hear Kinoe calling him.

"Menma?" The older man asked for the second time, shaking his younger brother by his shoulder.

The brown-haired boy shook himself like a wet cat and blinked. "Huh?"

"Someone saw something he liked?" Yuuki teased with a wide grin on her face.

Menma felt the heat flush his face red and sputtered some gibberish to defend himself, his arms flailing in protest.

"Focus, Menma." the voice of Kinoe, suddenly stern and monotone, cut through his embarrassment, reducing the boy to silence and making him sit straight and at attention.

The older man sighed. "I tend to forget you're so young sometimes." Kinoe eyed Yuuki. "We need to address that before reaching Yugakure, don't we?"

The woman shrugged and offered him a sorry face. "It would be wise, otherwise we are going to lose the kid to the first prostitute we meet."

Kinoe hummed pensively. "We could ensure that he shadows one of us at all time."

Yuuki shook her head. "The situation might not permit it. If we lose a sweet spot because our youngest is dominated by his hormones, we take the risk of going back empty handed. That's not acceptable."

"Hum…" Menma muttered shyly but too low to capt the attention of the two adult.

"To think we had the opportunity to solve this not three days ago." Kinoe stated, his voice still set in a monotone. "Why didn't I think of that?" He asked, raising an eyebrow at Yuuki.

The woman shrugged. "I don't know. No one did. As you say, we tend to forget he doesn't come with the same baggage as us."

"Hum, should I…" The boy tried again, louder this time. "Should I go back?"

Kinoe and Yuuki eyed the boy speculatively for the woman, impassively for the man. Menma started to fidget after a minute of being intently gazed at.

The door to the bathroom opened suddenly, revealing a naked Nana, who strutted in the chamber without a care in the world, stopped in front of her pack, before she turned to look at the strange standoff she had walked in.

"Something up?"

"We just realized Menma has not been initiated to anything regarding sex." Kinoe said, his tone one used to note that the sun had once again arisen eastward.

"Oh," said Nana dismissively, turning back to her gear before turning again to the trio, a concerned look on her face. "Oh. That's no good. We are going to Yugakure."

"Not good at all," chimed Yuuki. "Now get dressed Nana, you're frying the boy's brain right now."

"Ah shit, sorry!" The girl exclaimed before she hastily threw some clothes on. Once she was done, she neared Menma and waved her hand in front of the boy's eyes, who blushed a fierce red. "Whoa, I hope I didn't break him," said the teenager with a wide, teasing grin.

"Stop it, Nana. Yuuki, I need to ask you to discuss sexuality with our youngest. I trust you better than myself to thoroughly address the subject."

"Hehe, afraid to slip Kinoe?" Nana teased.

The man cocked his head sideways and cupped his ear with one hand. "I feel like I can hear someone volunteering to take your place, Yuuki. Should I?"

The redhead smiled teasingly at the younger girl, who looked mildly panicked. "That'll teach you to run your loud mouth, Nana. No, Kinoe, dear, I'll take care of poor Menma here. We can't have this foolish girl filling his head with nonsense."

Nana scratched her ear sheepishly. "Sorry, got carried away."

"You did," chided Kinoe. "Don't forget who is your big brother just because we are on the road."

The girl inclined her head slightly. "It won't happen again, aniki."

"Good," said the man, turning to face Yuuki. "I'll let you handle it how you see fit. Just ensure he can survive Yugakure."

"Got it."

"You got all that Menma?"

Menma, as far as he was concerned, was feeling like steam was escaping from his ears at the moment.

"Now that it's solved, let's go get something to eat and discuss the trip in more detail."

A few minutes later, the group of four was seated around a corner table in the large dining hall of their inn. The aromas of various food were floating in the air, exciting their palate and sending the youngest in a drooling transe.

"Don't actually slobber over the table Menma, that's disgusting."

"Sorry," the boy answered, immediately wiping the saliva off the corner of his mouth. "But it smells so good and I'm so hungry," he groaned.

He had not even finished to say that that a young boy around his age with an apron presented himself before them, bowing slightly. "What will you have for dinner tonight, guests-sama?" He asked politely while showing the table a slate with three different choices for meals.

All four travelers ordered the same rice-based dish, with pork and vegetables on the side, along with a large bottle of cider and the waiter quickly scampered off.

"So," began Kinoe. "Now we can discuss business in a normal voice."

"Huh?" Menma made a surprised face. "Won't we be heard?"

The older man smirked. "In this large common hall, there is too much noise and people for anyone to actually pay attention to us. Sometimes, hiding in plain sight is the best strategy."

The boy nodded. It made sense. "Can I ask a question then?"

"Yes."

"Why are we going as… Us?"

"Because the mission is a long term infiltration. If the goal was just to go in and out, we'd go in gear but that's not the case. When you want to stay in the same place for an unknown time and you want to stay incognito, you need an identity."

"But couldn't we like… Hide?"

"That's much trouble for little worth," explained Yuuki. "We would have to go in undetected, in a place full to the brim with spies and nukenin. We are good but there is always someone better, so chances are, we would be spotted. Then we would have to stay undetected, burrowing ourselves somewhere, with the same risk. Why go through all this trouble when we can have an alibi as some inoffensive minstrels?"

"We go in, we play during the day and we investigate at night," Nana concluded. "Or the opposite, whatever works."

"But haven't we a safehouse there or something?"

"Yugakure is a lawless den of predators and the Big Five love to play their games there. Every ninja village tried to establish a stronghold in the city but it turned into a game to destroy each other's safehouse. Since fifteen years ago, the village started planting sleeping agents and moles to keep the information flowing."

Menma nodded but his utterly puzzled expression betrayed his incomprehension. "Why do we invest so much in this place? I mean, it doesn't really hold any kind of big strategic value as I see it."

"Because you analyze the problem without relevant information. The Land of Onsen is a handy buffer state between Lightning and Fire but more than that, it's controlled chaos." Kinoe explained.

"Controlled chaos?" Menma asked, wondering what such an antinomic thing looked like and if the concept would have interested his old class teacher.

"Yugakure is allowed to exist for two reasons. One, it caters to the needs of rich nobles; money laundering, drugs of all kind, sex slaves, and other darker fetishes."

"But that's illegal, right?" The boy protested heatedly but not actually shouting, his eyes wide with indignation.

"Powerful people like to think they are above the law. We let them be because it keeps them in check, as long as they do not hurt us." Kinoe stated monotonously.

Menma felt himself go green. He did not like what the older man was explaining to him one bit.

"The second reason it exists is its nature. Yugakure is an artificially created criminal hub. The Big Five made it so that if something illegal is happening anywhere in the elemental nations, there is a link to it somewhere in Yugakure."

The young boy felt his eyes go wide in realization. "It's an access point." He muttered. "Like those chimney to access the sewer back at home."

Kinoe nodded, a hint of pride gleaming in his eyes at Menma's deduction. "Precisely. Every business the Big Five allow the criminal world to run, it finds its source in Yugakure."

The brown-haired kid leaned back in his seat and crossed his arm on his chest. "I don't like it. It's wrong to allow it."

"There is a great deal of wrong in this world and this way allows to control it, if even a little," observed Yuuki.

"But… But at this rate why not run the business ourselves? If we know it exists, we know it hurts people, and we don't stop it, how are we any better than those… Those criminals?" Menma whispered indignantly.

Cat averted her eyes, Hana looked away from the boy, and Tiger sighed before he spoke in a hard tone. "You can forget whatever they crammed in your head during the Academy, boy. How are we better? We might not be. The only truth you ever heard in all this propaganda is that there is only Konoha. And the family."

Startled by the cutting edge in the older man's voice, Naruto looked down, lost in thoughts. He knew that being a ninja was about lies but he was beginning to wonder if it was not more about uncomfortable truths. He simply never had imagined there would be so much.

"We are an organized mercenary state specialized in assassination, intelligence gathering, and asymmetrical fighting. That is our official line of business, validated by the authority of Fire Country," said Tiger sternly. "Make no mistake: the only reason we are not running drug rings, slave markets, or trading contraband is because, as of now, it is more profitable to Konoha when we do not. We know, however, that if we try to put a stop to those businesses, they would organize themselves back again but this time, outside of our watch. We cannot stop what happens in Yugakure but we can limit it."

Naruto nodded, unconvinced, trying his best not to let his imagination run free. His previous mission ever had been about rescuing Fire Country citizens from being sold as slaves in Rice and now, he was informed that, in Yugakure, it was considered a normal business, with the benediction of Konoha no less! That did not sit right with him. It was not okay if they were citizens from the Land of Fire but the rest of the world was fair game? That really, really did not sit right with him.

And what about those nobles who thought the laws for the common men were not applicable to them? If something was illegal, everyone was beholden to its illegality, not only the people too poor to violate the law!

"I need your attention here with us, Menma." Tiger's admonishing tone snapped Naruto out of his angry thoughts.

The boy nodded answered with a dry voice. "Hai, sorry aniki. So, how are we going to do this?"

* * *

The way they were going to do this, Naruto discovered, was some part investigation, part some luck. The fact that the mysterious sound ninja had coins -real and fake- minted in the Land of Onsen pointed to them doing business there but not much else.

The reason team Ro was even going to Yugakure was that there was no other place to begin the investigation with in the first place. As Tiger had explained: all criminal ventures could be traced back to their start in the Sincity.

The only tangible lead they had was a peculiar imprint an analyst had noticed on many coins. According to the chief of the department, the mark was a way to confirm the coin was a real one and was typical of drug dealing business. Which could possibly mean the sound ninja were buying or providing drugs to someone in Yugakure, with a big maybe. It was not that surprising, according to Tiger and Cat: apparently, body enhancing drugs crafted by ninja for war were used as mere speed in some aristocratic circles.

Or it could just be by chance that those particular coins ended up in the possession of the Otonin. The analysts were not clear on that, as the marked coins had made up the majority of the Yugakure li found in the purse, but not overwhelmingly so, as there were also fake ryos made in the Land of Onsen. And fake ryos were absolutely everywhere in Yugakure, so much so that it was one of the main concern of Konoha -in the name of Fire Country- to tightly monitor fake currency traffic.

Truly, the investigation would require a fair bit of luck and stumbling around in the dark to get a reliable lead. Naruto asked, however, how they would proceed to force the Lady's hand and to that, Tiger actually gave him a smile that seemed genuinely amused.

"You'll see," said the man, with a conniving face. "You'll get to see a very interesting place and you might even meet a very interesting person."

Cat simply smiled when Naruto looked at her searchingly while Hana shrugged her ignorance. Dog had not been much to Yugakure in her career as of yet.

When morning came, the four went back to their persona and on the road. Naruto or rather, Menma, tried desperately to juggle throwing knives while Cat, back to being Yuuki, explained to him the wonders of sexual reproduction and carnal pleasure. The woman, as any good street performer should be, was rather graphic in her description. She topped by actually singing a bawdy song, accompanying herself with her koto. It made for an overall very embarrassing afternoon for Menma while Kinoe and Nana mercilessly snickered at his desperation.

Later that day, the older man brought everyone back on earth and warned his younger brother not to be distracted by flesh while on a mission. They were chances the circumstances would force him to make said distracting flesh dead and cold, after all.

Like this, day after day, the Quatuor progressed toward the Land of Onsen, using the time on the road to perfect their role, work on an actual show they could perform on the streets of Yugakure, and plan for their actual mission at least a minimum. After a little more than two weeks of travel, the band of fake minstrels entered the Land of Onsen, paying a ridiculously expensive tax to a corrupt frontier guard.

Menma was tasked with robbing the man blind as soon as he turned his back to the group. It was a way to "work on his left-handed dexterity", according to Kinoe.

The Land of Onsen, much like Rice Country, bore its name for a very simple reason: the earth was cratered with astounding regularity and hot water was boiling out of those holes of all size. From some special sources, Menma astonishingly saw water be naturally projected high in the air in an explosion of steam.

Kinoe called them "geysers". Apparently, plunging inside one of the growling maws was a test of daring and courage for the youths of the Land of Onsen, as well as a cruel method of execution for its governing body.

Three more days later and Naruto lay his eyes for the first time on Yugakure. The heart of the Elemental Nations' criminal ventures was a city of contrast. Impossibly high towers made entirely of steel, concrete, and glass rose in the sky, shining in the sun while casting shadows over tiny, rundown traditional houses made of wood and bricks. The streets were large yet made narrow by the sheer mass of people that moved through them, trying to go somewhere, anywhere really. Garments ranged from rich and colorful to disgusting and tattered. Nobles carried in palanquins, closely guarded by mean-faced individuals, parted the crowd, a retinue of beggars, adults and children, trailing behind them, pleading for a ryo.

Countless vendors created an aggressive cacophony of advertisement, forcing anyone who had the bad luck of nearing their shop too much to stop and discuss their ware. Traditional goods were far from being the only thing being sold however and Naruto saw many houses painted entirely red. After Cat's lessons, he knew what they were. A disgusted fascination took hold of him as he saw women, jailed in cages painted in gold, dance lasciviously in front of such a house, inviting customers of all kind to visit them.

The establishments of the second sort were far more discreet and only recognizable because of the swarm of desperate addicts scratching at their door, lost souls experiencing withdrawal yet too poor to ensure a dose of their favorite poison.

Naruto shuddered at the collective sight and did his absolute best not to puke. A bitter smile wrung his mouth at the memory of one specific placard that could be found in the Academy, promising adventure and novelty to the enrolled students. It had never clarified adventure and novelty would be that ugly.

"Watch yourself and accept absolutely nothing." Tiger reminded him in a stern monotone before slipping back to Kinoe.

Menma nodded, his eyes trained nowhere, flickering freely from unknown face to new sight while keeping his peripheral vision as large as possible, his mind whirling at full speed as he anticipated each movement as possible aggression. The boy shuddered when a prostitute threw him a saucy wink, licking her lips as she pressed between her breast one bar of her cage. He felt his stomach lurch when a living carcass of a man, a bona fide living wreck, shook in the ecstasy of a false orgasm provoked by some liquid he had just injected himself. His eyes widened to comical proportion and he stifled an astonished shout when he saw a man stabbing another to death in a narrow alleyway and stealing the victim's purse. Mildly sick, the brown-haired street performer did not see the fat man and his retinue standing in the way of their little group.

It was only when he received a harsh palm strike to the shoulder that he realized there was an obstacle in front of their little group.

The man was fat, obese even, and disgustingly sweaty. Two black beads were serving as his eyes, darting left and right, betraying impatience but not nervosity. He was surrounded by three men who were all muscular and mean-faced.

"How much do ya sell the two youngest?" The fat man asked to Kinoe in a raspy, tired breath.

Kinoe bowed respectfully, adding a little fioritura by crossing his legs like it was the trend in some court. "I regret, noble sir, but my brother and sister are not for sale." The man said, his voice a carefully crafted mix of obedience, respect, and sycophancy.

"Com'on, everything has a price here my good man." The fat man said sweetly, apparently used to this kind of negotiation. "See here, I'll give ya a hundred thousand ryos for the both of them, plus a commission on their actual auction. They are young and healthy, they'll fetch for an awesome price, let me tell ya!"

"Alas, my lord, appearance can be deceitful! My sister is not a virgin anymore and she lacks plenty of teeth!" Kinoe lamented, gesturing toward Nana who revealed a severely lacking dentition. "As for my brother, he is chronically sick each and every winter since he is five!"

The fat man hummed while holding his chin under two greasy, fat, sausage-like fingers sporting many rings. He appeared to think things through for a second, gear visibly turning behind his two beady eyes before he exhaled by the nose strongly.

"I might have a way, my good man. I know someone who will disguise yar sister well enough that whoever buys her won't see her as she is! As for your brother, winter is long away and auctions are every day in Yugakure!" The slaver exposed his plan with enthusiasm.

Menma could only watch flabbergasted as a fat, disgusting pig masquerading as a human was trying to buy Nana and him while Kinoe was diplomatically doing his best to divert the fat man's attention.

"Alas, my lord, alas, I fear whoever is rich enough to pay for my sister would have men at their service able to see through such deception!" Kinoe countered, his tone still the same honeyed whisper.

"That, I can manage my good man. Com'on I can make ya rich ya know? Honestly, how much do they fetch you on the streets with their poor skills? Sell them to me! The merchandise isn't perfect but it never is and I can tell from here their skin is soft and their flesh tender."

Being talked of as an object, a mere thing to be sold and exchanged revulsed Naruto who extirpated himself from his stupor to dart furious eyes on the merchant of human flesh, who paid him no mind and kept talking.

"I can tell she has a firm pair of breast and she is young! Who cares about virginity when they have a firm ass like she has, ya know?!"

The disguised blond felt red hot anger swell within him. Not only was the fat man buying and selling humans, but he was also envisaging for Hana a fate that left little doubt. At this moment, and for the first time in his life, Naruto actually wanted to kill someone. Not because it was a mission, not because it had been sanctioned by his Hokage. Only because the animal -no, that was not it as animals did not sell their own-, the trash in front of him did not deserve to live any minute longer, did not need any other opportunity to spread his sinister trade. Naruto despised nothing more than his cover and its necessity for the mission.

He would have bled the man like a pig otherwise.

A light but reassuring hand fell on his shoulder and Menma looked up to see Yuuki looking down at him with a slight smile. The boy gave her an interrogative look but she only motioned with her head toward Kinoe.

Menma nearly choked from surprise and actual fright when he saw his big brother level on the merchant an all-encompassing, positively terrifying stare. His black eyes were wide open and dead, like those of a fish, yet freezingly piercing, emotionless and unblinking. Strange shadows were dancing on his face, accentuating further the frightening effect of his glare.

"Alas, good sir, I fear our poor mother, the Great Mother has her soul, would never forgive me if I sold my family to you." The man said in the same honeyed voice, except it carried an untold threat within and actually sounded like a dangerous venom was dripping from Kinoe's mouth.

The fat man recoiled in fright and started to sweat even more profusely than he had been until now.

"I see, ha ha, silly me… If it's family I totally get ya my good man, myself, wouldn't sell my mother for a ryo! See ya and good luck, my good man!" Greeted the merchant hastily before darting -as much as he could "dart" with all his fat- away, motioning for his three guards to follow him.

Menma swallowed thickly even as Kinoe's face returned to a more amiable version of itself. The man turned to face his younger brother.

"As I was saying, watch yourself, don't accept anything, and also, don't sell yourself."

The boy nodded furiously and hastily followed the three adults in the ever-moving mass of Yugakure. They would reach their destination soon.

"It's… It's here?" Menma asked, looking up incredulously with wonder in his eyes and awe in his voice at the massive house standing across the bridge they were standing in front of. The bridge was a large construction elegantly arching over a large river and linking to the mainland an isolated island.

"Island" being a big word to name a rocky protrusion with sides as straight as a cliff, cleaved in two parts, one large and supporting the main building, the other many times smaller where a gigantic chimney smoking black coal was defying the sky like an erect finger.

On the island itself was their destination, a place called the Aburaya. Built on massive, grey foundations of concrete, an otherwise elegant, square tower of several floors, built in the traditional style, was projecting its warm red walls and its mint green wavy roofs toward the sky. Small windows were piercing the walls at regular interval when it was not large balconies of brown wood closed by sliding panels made of small squares of glass, running along the facade. The second to last floor was circled entirely by one.

Laid gracefully on it, a smaller floor, also all wood and small panels of glass, circled by a bright red fence, was topped by a large roof, the green tiles hosting four golden lions and the head of an oni.

However, the striking feature of the building, the one architectural dare that caught the eye, was an elegant marquee protecting a terrace projected by the tower at its mid-height, entirely open.

Menma could see countless shadows lounging on the large terrace, enjoying gods knew what, above and away from earthly troubles.

Under the balcony was the entrance, the two doors guarding it wide open, a small garden welcoming the visitor with delicate sight and exquisite smell. The finishing touch to this otherworldly sight was the strange flag suspended to a mast where the word "open" was written for all to see.

"Yes," answered Kinoe. "Welcome to Yubaba's lair. Welcome to the Bathhouse."

* * *

The group of four crossed the bridge in a slow walk, Naruto's eyes darting left and right like an irresolute butterfly trying to capture the building to the smallest detail. As the minstrels reached the highest point of the arc, the disguised boy shuddered suddenly, as if he had passed through a thin, invisible curtain of rain.

"A barrier," he realized after a second, his eyes widening in surprise. Whoever owned the place knew fuinjutsu or could pay enough for a master to compose for them. Naruto looked at his companions but they did not look like they had noticed or at least, the did not show it.

They reached the garden and the boy was once again captivated by the sight and this time, the smell. He fashioned himself a gardening amateur but the small space of greenery was simply astounding. Nana had to drag him away from an especially pleasant flower and they finally entered the tower.

If the outside of the Bathhouse was refined and elegant, the inside was absolute madness. It was a chaos of men and women, customers and servants, people drinking, smoking, gambling, talking, and a few actually bathing while girls of various age danced a ballet between countless tables, bars, and baths, carrying orders under the watchful eyes of a few very muscular men.

Naruto could not help but notice that some of the hostesses were wearing fewer clothes than others, who were already not much covered.

"Everything here," informed Kinoe, "is expensive and the price might not always be what it seems. Everyone, be careful and stay together."

For a minute, the group followed the man's lead, Menma taking great never to be separated from the others. He could understand why they were meeting their contact here: the rumor of the crowd would mask any business they would talk about here and no one would suspect a thing: they were four travelers weary from the road, they had all the reason to take a bath and relax a bit. Suddenly, Kinoe motioned for them to seat in a little alcove.

"Now we wait," said the man laconically.

And wait they did, sipping a glass of rice wine Kinoe had allowed them to order -a young girl with dark eyes and rosy cheeks named Sen had served them-, observing the ambient chaos, Menma and Nana exchanging veiled comments about how that man was ridiculously fat, how that woman's makeup was terrible, laughing silently at their own jokes while Yuuki appeared to tune her instrument and Kinoe was playing nonchalantly with a deck of cards.

Their cups were since long empty when an average looking man, whose age Menma could not tell, hobbled to their table. The alarms of his instinct blared at full power and the boy was immediately on guard, even more than he had been until now: no one was that average nor looking that harmless.

"It's good to be aware kiddo but ya're going to have us noticed if ya don't relax," said the stranger as his introduction.

Kinoe nodded almost imperceptibly and Menma forced himself to lower his guard slightly. Nana motioned the boy to scoot over a bit so as to allow the stranger to sit with an exhausted sigh.

"Ya had a drink already?" The unknown man asked, scratching the little mustache covering his lip.

"We were waiting for you to get second," answered Kinoe with a fake smirk that looked truer than some genuine article did.

"Perfect, I'm thirsty ya know? Oy!" The man exclaimed while frantically waving his hand in the air. "Another cup and a jug of rice wine here!"

The order arrived promptly and the stranger drank his first cup greedily as if the pungent alcohol was actually enjoyable and quenching.

"Ahh, that's mighty good where it goes, I tell ya. So, the name's Muta Ikko, what's yar business?"

Kinoe shuffled his deck and spoke in a light voice. "We are on a money trail. Some people are trying to make money by selling free, honest workers."

Muta barked a laugh. "Wouldn't be the first time."

"True but they angered the wrong people. Tough luck," explained Kinoe with a shrug of his shoulders.

Muta nodded his agreement. "Tough luck indeed. Who are they?"

Kinoe flipped a card where, instead of any of the traditional marking, a musical note was etched. The Quatuor of disguised ninja did not have to wait long for a reaction. Muta instantly became deadly pale, his breath hitched, and his eyes widened before he gathered his countenance again, all under a second. The undercover ANBU however, had seen everything.

"You can tell me anything on these newcomers?"

Muta swallowed thickly and hid his fear behind a confused face. He hummed for a second, appearing to carefully observe the card Kinoe was showing before he spoke. "Sorry my man, my memory isn't what it was ya know?" Shrugging slightly and raising his eyebrows in an almost comedic show of ignorance, the stranger shook his head. "I don't know this sign."

"Really now," Kinoe said in his monotone. "And how much money would it take to jog your memory?"

Muta paled and shook his head again. "I really don't know anything about them, ya know?"

Kinoe nodded ever so slightly, more for himself than for the man. "I see. The ravages of time can be unkind, as they say." The man said, his voice holding a dangerous edge. "Nana, fill the poor man's cup, he needs a drink for his woes."

The girl obeyed wordlessly but Muta instantly got up and coughed awkwardly. "It's alright ya know, I'm good and Ma Ikko is waiting for me at home."

A hand as strong as steel and as heavy as lead fell on the information broker's shoulder and forcefully sat him back again. Muta's head swiveled and stared with horror at the frozen smile Yuuki was giving him as she pressed down on his body. Menma observed with fascination as the man started to sweat his fear abundantly, the boy's sensible nose twitching at the acrid smell, the man's fright weighing on the boy's mind directly.

"Now are you sure you do not know them?" Tiger asked in his robotic monotone, a card dancing in his fingers.

Muta's eyes went wide in fright when he saw the card was a black four with a white skull on its back. The man swallowed, as if it was mobilizing all his strength, and coughed several times to clear the fear from encumbering his throat. Eventually, he nodded.

"I'm disappointed, Muta-san," Tiger said almost nonchalantly. "I don't like liars."

Sandwiched between Tiger and Cat, the broker could only shiver in fright, apparently too terrified to speak.

"If money does not clear the fog of your mind, maybe a bit of pain will do," commented the ANBU leader before, in a motion so quick Naruto almost missed it, mercilessly cutting one of Muta's finger with a shuriken.

The man was not allowed the chance to scream his pain as a strange tree branch, impossibly sprouting from the wooden bench, wrapped around and inside his mouth, muffling his shout and keeping Muta from biting his tongue off, as Cat started to play, apparently on a whim, a few notes that covered the whimper. Naruto barely stifled his own cry of surprise and indignation, his eyes darting from the severed appendage twitching in a pool of blood to his stone-faced leader. A foul smell hit his nose and the boy realized the man had released his bladder. He could feel the pain, the fear, the hopelessness mixing and oozing from Muta, scratching at the edge of his own emotions, trying to invade the sanctuary of his mind. Naruto felt himself break out in a cold sweat; he knew the fear was not his own but it was overpowering, like the staunch of a corpse.

"Now, shall we play a game?" Tiger asked, his voice suddenly too sweet, sickeningly so. "I bet you'll break at the next finer. If I'm right, you give us the information I want. If I'm wrong, the game start anew." The man explained with a terrifyingly out-of-place smile. "Oh yeah, I forgot; there's no way for you to win."

Muta looked like he could faint at any moment. His face was contorted in pain, tears were rolling from his eyes and snot was covering his nose.

"So, willing to talk?"

The tree sprout relaxed gently, allowing the information broker to weep. "They'll… They'll kill me if I speak," stuttered Muta. "They'll kill me…Anything… They said if I said anything, they would take him… Like… Like they took her..."

Naruto felt his guts twist and turn and protest. He still could not believe what he was seeing. He still could not believe the Tiger who had trained him, demanding, a true slave-driver even, yet helpful and kind nonetheless, was the same cold, merciless man who was torturing this poor sap. Someone whose only wrong was to know too much yet could not speak of it.

Who was "her"? Naruto would probably never know but it was someone dear to Muta. A wife, a sister, a daughter. A precious someone. The boy suddenly felt sick. Was that the work Konoha wanted of him? His gaze wavered for a second and Naruto was unsure if the disgust he was feeling was not against himself. He refused, however, not to look. He felt like he owed it to the man his captain was torturing. He owed it to the man he was torturing.

"Still not tenderized enough huh? Let's see if I win my bet."

Before their victim could protest, the tree branch gagged him again and his eyes went wide, with terror at first, with pain then, when a second finger was hacked off. Naruto felt himself tear up as another wave of nausea hit him and so he begged. Silently, Naruto begged the man to talk, to not prolong his suffering more than what was necessary. It felt weak, cowardly maybe, but the boy did not know if he could withstand the aggression of Muta's haywire psyche.

When the branch released its captive, the man was sobbing quietly.

"So?" Tiger asked.

Muta mumbled something incomprehensible before Tiger slapped him. "So?"

"The… The drug market, the Akira," whimpered the man in-between the body-wracking sobs that shook him. "They are in here to sell drugs, that's all I know I swear!" He continued in a low, broken voice, his pitch shifting higher and higher as he whispered.

Tiger laid a scrutinizing gaze on the wrecked man and concluded that quite likely, he indeed did not know more. He was an information broker after all, not a full-fledged spy. "Very well." The ANBU leader said suddenly, his voice as cutting as sharpened steel. "Nana, disposal, Yuuki, cover, Menma…"

Naruto swallowed thickly.

"Watch and learn."

In a second, Nana slipped something in Muta's drink, a pill that hissed and foamed as it made contact with the alcohol. The informant watched, terrified, as the teenager took the cup and forced him to drink its content, while Yuuki was playing a fast-paced melody, distracting anyone looking with radiant smiles, flowing robes, and agile fingers.

It took ten seconds for Muta's eyes to glaze over and another ten for the man to crumbled like a puppet without its string. Menma watched in horror, too shocked to say anything before he realized the man was alive. And fast asleep. The boy tried to swallow whatever he had through his throat and coughed when he failed.

Nana lost no time and, taking the two cut fingers, placed them in front of their respective stump. Before he could ask himself what she was hoping to accomplish, Menma saw her run through hand signs before he palm glowed with healing chakra.

A minute later, Nana, sweating and out of breath, had stitched the two fingers back into place. At much the same time, Kinoe had finished cleaning the blood.

"I feel sick," Menma informed his three companions before he dry-heaved over the empty wine jug.

* * *

**Believe it or not, that chapter was a pleasure to write, save for that last part: that was intense. I hope it is also intense to read, even if a little bit.**

**To "Guest", who commented (on chapter 10) mainly on how "jutsu and chakra are incorrect in this fic": the Narutoverse is a fictional world whose magical rules are not clearly defined. You do not come from this verse and as such, do not possess superior knowledge about its magical rules. The information you do possess comes from Narutopedia at best and is just as incomplete. If I want to explain "why" Chakra works a certain, I am entirely free to do so.**

**It is unfortunate you commented so shortly on rhythm, character development, and character interaction because that is what actually interests me. I find you harsh as far as character development goes, considering all the changes in Naruto. I wonder what you would call "worthwhile interaction": Tiger, Dog, Cat, Konohamaru, Hiruzen, Ayame... Were all those interactions worthless and uninteresting? Is there not one that found grace in your eyes? As for the "training and only training", I edited chapter 5 with an offer that still stands (to all of you readers, actually): if you can point to me what part should, IYO, go and if you can explain to me why, please, do send me a PM! Finally, you find my story boring, well, not much I can do if you do not expand on that.**

**To all of you, do leave a review if you feel so inclined and please, logged readers, don't comment on this AN too much! (Send me a PM, they are here for just that! :-) )**


	18. Chapter 18 Both side of a coin

**AN: Apparently, this story is entertaining enough that more than 3 000 people have fav'ed it. That makes me happy. I hope you enjoy.**

* * *

Cat rubbed Naruto's back as the boy was slowly recovering from his bout of sickness.

"So what are we doing now?" Dog asked Tiger, who was humming low.

"We look for someone who is less afraid of those Otonin. He didn't give us enough." The man answered after a second of thoughtful silence, sparing a glance at Muta's asleep form.

"What is the Akira?"

"No idea," said Tiger with a shake of his head. "Could be the name of the drug they are selling. Could be the name of a place, of a rich client… We need more info."

"Should we visit the drug market?" Dog offered.

"There is no centralized place for the drug business, not like for slaves exchange," explained Cat, who had a hand firmly gripping Naruto's shoulder as the boy breathed deeply beside her.

"So, how are we doing this?"

"We'll begin by maintaining our cover first. We won't be convincing minstrels if we don't entertain people for a bit."

"We play here?" Dog asked, surprised.

Cat shook her head. "No. Yubaba would kick us out faster than we can say kunai."

Tiger nodded. "No one but Yubaba makes money on Yubaba's turf."

"We won't be going far though. The Bathhouse is a neutral ground and Yubaba has the power to enforce this rule. We'll be safe here, as long as we don't start anything." Cat completed.

The four undercover ANBU exited the giant bathhouse and meandered for a bit in the labyrinthine streets of Yugakure until Tiger stopped, apparently deciding a random corner of a random crossing would do fine as a scene for their little show. All the while, Cat gently guided a dazed Naruto through the busy streets, not saying a word but leaving a reassuring hand on the boy's shoulder.

The disguised blond used the respite of their walk to order his thoughts. For a second, he contemplated going through them but decided ultimately that now was not the time, remembering Tiger's lesson about emotions in the field.

It seemed like he was not nearly strong enough to come to term with what he was feeling right now, so the fake brunette decided to close the door on the swirling maelstrom that was raging inside of him. Everything he did, all of it, he was doing it for his future family. The family he had to claw his way into. Obtaining a place within ANBU was worth it, worth anything. He was sure of that. He had to be sure of that.

Naruto ruthlessly squashed the little voice inside his head that kept asking him the same question over and over again.

"Anything?"

He silenced it, gagged it, buried it, and when the group of four reached their performing spot, Naruto's eyes were clear and his mind focused. Without missing a beat, he got his juggling knives out of a satchel and started to expertly dance around while throwing them one-handed. Nana started her three canine companions on some acrobatic stunts and Kinoe decided to amaze a few strangers with a deck of cards. It did not take long for a little crowd of curious passerby to form, attracted by the rhythmic music Yuuki was playing on her shamisen, some of them throwing money in the open casing of the woman's instrument.

The show went on for an hour before Kinoe bowed deeply and discreetly signalled toward his companions to stop. The group of four all bowed and thanked the ever-changing crowd profusely before they packed and moved.

To another random spot of another random corner, Naruto understood quickly. They repeated the pattern a few time, performing for an hour or so before moving, taking care to not stray too far from the Bathhouse. On the fifth time, however, as the sun was slowly but surely starting to burn the sky orange, Tiger and Dog suddenly decided to let Cat and him fend for themselves.

"We'll make more money this way," explained the older male tersely, which meant the Inuzuka girl and he would start looking for a more talkative informant.

Naruto, Cat and the Haimura trio nodded and watched as their two teammates departed. The boy sighed and got his throwing knives out.

"Menma-chan~" whined Yuuki in a very convincing imitation of some of the girls in the Academy when it was time for running laps. "We can take a little break you know? We've been going at it for hours and I'm tired now." She said while dragging the last vowels in a suggestive voice.

The boy smiled ruefully at the innuendo -he was mildly bothered he'd gotten it- and sat down with the three dogs near the woman who started to mindlessly tune her shamisen, playing a few notes here and there as a test. Absentmindedly, Menma started to whistle along as he carefully whirled a knife around the knuckles and fingers of his left hand.

"You want to talk about it?" The woman asked suddenly in a tone uncharacteristic of her persona.

Naruto turned toward Cat, who was looking at him with very serious eyes. "Here?" The boy hesitated.

The woman shrugged. "It's not like anyone will bother us."

Naruto allowed his eyes to gaze at the ever-changing flow of humans that streamed all around him. It was true that in this crowd, no one would hear them. No one would bother trying to listen to them either, probably. The boy bit into his lower lip. He supposed now was as good as ever to address what he had been ignoring and he had a friendly ear too.

However, "with you?" was the true question he had wanted to ask but did not dare.

The woman wasn't the friendly ear he felt he needed right now. That made him uncomfortable. He did not know Cat like he now knew Tiger and Dog. Tiger had mentored him since day one and he had endured two weeks of Dog unwashed and teaching him field medicine in a shack lost in Rice Country.

That forged bonds.

Cat was his kenjutsu instructor. She was a fair teacher for sure, who had guided him like he imagined a teacher should have and provided encouragement when needed. The fact was, she was neither Tiger nor Dog.

She was, however, the one he had unleashed his darkest demons for. Maybe she could help him going through this new one, as a fair exchange of a sort? She was a teammate after all, about that he had no doubt.

Naruto cleared his throat and scratched the back of his scalp. He did not know where he even wanted to begin. He wasn't sure what was his problem really. He did not like the idea of torturing a man? Tiger did not look like he had enjoyed the session either. What human would enjoy the thought of slicing bits and pieces off of another human, save those sick and deranged?

So what was it then? Some remnant of a romantic, idealized vision of the shinobi life, full of daring actions, princesses to save, and undoubtedly good deeds? Naruto thought he had come to term with it with his first kills but it was a possibility. The more he lived the ninja life, the more bloody the actions, the more guilty the princesses, and the more questionable the deeds became.

Or was it, maybe, that covering himself in the blood of other men to achieve his own goals felt disgusting? That answering "anything" to the eternal dilemma of the means and the goals was completely wrong, disproportionate?

The boy felt the prickle of unshed tears behind his eyes and inhaled a deep, shuddering breath. La whined and licked his hand in a comforting gesture. His gaze lost in the throng of moving people, Naruto sighed and patted the dog's head.

"I'm just… Wondering, that's all."

Cat kept playing her shamisen for a few seconds. "May I know about what?"

Naruto abandoned his people-watching and turned to face the woman. At first glance, she seemed to be concentrating on her instrument, her head slightly bent forward but her eyes were anchored to Naruto's and the boy thought he could see encouragement.

A promise to be heard.

Maybe she was indeed the ear he needed right now after all. Dog was too young to have solved the conundrum herself and Tiger was sometimes too inflexible. Maybe Cat was the right in-between he was looking for.

"If it's worth it." He mumbled in a breath.

Naruto's shoulders slumped dejectedly just as he gritted his teeth in anger. The promises Dragon had so easily made him buy, Naruto now realized he had to pay for them in full. At the time, it felt like he had no other path open to him but he could not help but wonder: would it have been easier if he had not chosen the shadows?

It had been a non-choice at the time, yet another thing that had been forced unto him for the better but now Naruto was angry at the unfairness of it all. Enduring the villager's scorn, entering a team who would have no doubt despised him, proving himself as the kind of normal ninja who saved the damsels in distress rather than terminated them; all of it seemed strangely attractive now that he had to take care of the wet-work.

"So long as it's not you who does it, it's all good, right?" whispered a treacherous voice in the back of his mind. Naruto instantly felt disgusted with himself.

He had no doubt being a regular shinobi would have been easier on his mind. One of his clones had worked on the mission assignment desk after all. He knew what mission genin and chunin were assigned to and those that required blood to be spilt were taken in the name of justice: protecting merchant, tracking bandits, putting down rabid animals, everything was done with the intention to protect people. Even jonin weren't tasked with anything truly difficult: hunting a psychotic missing-nin or ending a too-daring crime lord required skills but was ultimately a good action.

After his second mission, Naruto's hopes had been high. He had chased down slavers and scum who had kidnapped honest citizens. Reality had eventually caught up these past few days.

Now he understood ANBU. The corps saw to everything regular shinobi weren't tasked with. They were the bogeymen that the powers that be deemed necessary and necessity was apparently law.

Naruto's thoughts drifted to Muta. The man lived in Yugakure so could not be white as snow but it did not matter. Whatever wrongdoing he had committed, they weren't the reason Tiger had diced up his fingers. As far as the boy could tell, Muta's only fault was being trapped between the hammer and the anvil and as far as he could see, compassion was reserved strictly to those who served the same side.

Woe on whoever was serving opposite interests and anyone caught in the middle. Feeling his discomfort once again, La pushed his head under Naruto's left hand, stealing a fleeting smile to the boy.

"I'm just…"Naruto breathed deeply. "I'm just starting to realize my job is a shitty one."

Cat stared at Naruto intently, her fingers automatically dancing along her shamisen's neck and producing a melancholic melody. With a sad smile and sorry eyes, she nodded. "It is. Will you stop doing it?"

Naruto swallowed thickly and shrugged. "It doesn't feel like I have much of a choice."

"You have." Cat corrected with another smile, gentle this one. "We all have but every choice we make have consequences. It's up to us to shoulder these, to find the strength and the motivation to do so."

Naruto nodded absentmindedly, the notes of Cat's piece dancing around him like leaves in autumn. The boy wondered for a second what was the woman's motivation. As a ninja, he was sworn to defend Konoha's interests; had Cat found some greater meaning in her oath? Or did she do her duty because a strong village meant the people precious to her were safe and protected? Naruto could only shake his head: everything felt so egotistical.

"How do you do it?" He eventually asked, deciding that losing himself in conjecture would not help.

Cat kept on playing and at first, Naruto thought his question had been lost to the vibrating strings. He had accepted the woman would not answer him when she finally spoke.

"The world is a dangerous place. Konoha, as a force of good, makes it better and by upholding the Will of Fire, its shinobi make it better too. I endure for those I love."

Naruto raised a very sceptical eyebrow, the way Cat had canted her text making it impossible to take her seriously. The boy snorted.

"Recognized that?" The woman asked, mirth tintinnabulating in her voice.

The boy shook his head, his fake brown hair swaying slightly.

"That's the bullshit they fed me when I was in the Academy."

Naruto shrugged, not remembering this particular bit of propaganda. Maybe they had changed the formula or maybe he had been pranking someone at the time.

"Now let me reformulate," continued Cat. "The world is an ugly place. I fight to keep the ugliness away, to keep my comrades alive, to keep all those I hold dear safe. I endure for those I love and the greater good of Konoha can go fuck itself."

Naruto snorted and barely hold his laughter at Cat's crude choice of word. Biting his hand to help himself, he shook for a few seconds before regaining control. Taking a few deep breaths, the boy looked at his teammate, his seriousness recovered.

"That makes the world uglier though." He said, all trace of laughter erased and gone. "Especially for others. The rest. Those you don't know and don't care about." He completed, looking at the disinterested passer-by, the anonymous mass of humans who went about with their business.

"True but it makes it brighter for the few I can protect. I'm only human, I can only do so much."

"Just this morning, we went out of our way to torture someone who was unfortunate enough to know something about someone we are looking for," Naruto observed, his voice as neutral as he could manage which wasn't much considering it was vibrating with both anger and disappointment.

"What do you propose we did?"

Naruto breathed deeply. "Nothing. We could have done nothing and let the man go."

"We could have," said Cat with a seemingly approving nod but with a perfectly neutral voice. "We could have yet what if one of us had to die to obtain the same information in another way? Would you shoulder this responsibility?"

"We are shinobi. Death is part of what we endure." The boy answered, unnerved by Cat's monotone.

"Muta is an information broker. It isn't without risk." She countered in the same unwavering manner.

"But his family has nothing to do with it!" Naruto exclaimed, drawing a few startled glances from some passing people.

"It was his choice to endanger them so," remarked Cat. "Choices have consequences. The lure of easily made money outweighed the security of his family."

That momentarily shut Naruto up, a muttered "but still" dying before it could be properly enunciated. Almost immediately, however, a wave of anger welled inside the boy's gut.

"Don't you feel anything?!" He exclaimed suddenly, his tone acerb, his furious eyes trained at Cat who was still maintaining an Olympian calm. "Don't you feel even remotely sorry for whoever he was trying to protect?" The boy's voice cracked and he blinked away tears of anger, the memory of Muta's fear and despair assaulting him. "'Cause I felt it," he mumbled with anguish, his eyes looking down on nothing, his palms furiously squashing a few lost tears. "I felt everything fucking bit of it."

He could not absolutely disregard someone like that. He could not ignore their suffering so completely. He knew it would have been intolerable for him to do so. He knew what it meant to be ignored, after all.

He had not even noticed Cat had ceased to play when he felt her hand grip his shoulder firmly.

"I do," said the woman gravely, sorrow clear in her voice. "I do and yet all I can think about in the end is how it's no one I hold dear. It was his choice to do what he does, just like it was ours to do what we did and do. I have no answer to your question, Maru, only this simple truth: choices have consequences, sometimes beyond what we can foresee and it is up to us to endure what comes out of it. Always remember that."

Naruto's entire body slumped as if robbed of its strength by the bout of anger, and the boy exhaled a long, deep breath.

"Is what we do right or wrong? I want to believe it is just to want to protect the people I care for. Is how we do it the right way? I want to believe it is at least the most efficient, the path with the safest results for those I hold dear," explained the woman with determination. "There is no absolute, only people who live how they chose to. That I know for sure."

Cat squeezed the boy's shoulder one last time and left him with his thoughts, returning to her shamisen. La whined again and gave Naruto's hand a vigorous tonguing.

Naruto gave a humourless chuckle to the passing crowd. "It feels so… So egotistical. We fight for ours and the rest of the world can burn, is that it?" The boy sighed. "There are no heroes, is there? No good guys. That's kind of sad, 'ttebayo." He observed with a wry smile, his verbal tic carrying none of its usual enthusiasm.

Cat shook her head. "The hero of one is the villain of another, Maru. It's human nature to treasure some things and to want them safe."

"When do you become a monster for doing so though?"

"That's for you to judge and draw the line."

Naruto scoffed with a sideways grin that carried neither humour nor warmth on his lips. "Choices, huh?"

"You get it." Cat nodded.

The boy took the time to ruminate the woman's answer for a minute before a thought occurred to him. "What if it goes against your duty?"

"You endure."

"So you don't always have the choice." Naruto pointed out, some sort of bitter satisfaction at being proven right invading his mouth just as some mild anger surfaced once again.

When nothing but silence answered his remark, the fake brunette reclined on his elbows and cocked his head against La's body, allowing a groan to escape him. "Do you think they ever ask themselves this kind of questions?" Naruto asked, gesturing vaguely toward the passer-by.

"Do you know why the Third War broke out?"

The boy, surprised by the non sequitur, mumbled a stutter before his brain supplied what might have been an answer. "Iwa attacked?"

He did not remember if he had been there for this specific lesson but when in doubt, the Hidden Rock was an easy target to blame. He could remember the Academy frequently doing that.

Cat gave a dry smile. "You could say that, yes, but why did they attack?"

Naruto shrugged. Because the Hidden Rock was led by right bastards? "Don't know," admitted the boy.

The woman shook her head. "You wouldn't. It's actually kind of a secret if you're not a ninja."

One of Naruto's eyebrow rose. "Yeah?"

"A ninja team was tasked with carrying an important letter to three little countries bordering the southern borders of the Land of Earth. This team, despite being comprised of some of the best Konoha had to offer, was caught by Iwa-nin. The rock-heads paid for it dearly but two of our shinobi fell and a third was captured. The captain was left with a choice: he could exchange the secret letter against the life of his comrade or escape. He was good enough to do so and it was his duty. Yet, he chooses to save the life of his teammate and gave the Iwa-nin the letter. It was a proposition for a secret alliance between the Lands of Bears, Wolves, and Eagles and Fire Country in anticipation of a war against Earth, promising to the allies the entirety of Earth Country's rich southern valleys."

Naruto stared at Cat before letting a monumental sigh escape his lips. It wasn't enough for the waters to be muddy; he had to serve a country of bastards too. "I guess it went to shit rather quickly from here on, huh?"

Cat nodded. "The plot was exposed. Earth ensured help or neutrality from his northern neighbours and opened a strong diplomatic channel with Lightning first and Water second. The Third War was entirely Fire Country and Konoha's fault and the first spark was that man's decision. He had to endure, either his duty and the death of his comrade or the opposite. He made a choice."

Naruto stayed silent. He did not know if there was anything to add to that. He could definitely see Cat's point now and the bitterness vanished. After a second of soul searching, he realized he was glad everything could be chosen, or almost so. Circumstances were definitely a thing, he was the living testament to that but it felt empowering to decide.

Even when the choices were biased or impossible to make, they spoke load about whoever made them. Naruto had to admit, however, that he strongly wished never to have to make a decision on the scale of the mysterious Leaf shinobi. He pitied the unknown captain: the man had done what he had felt was right, had chosen where his honour lay and had been rewarded with a war everyone must have blamed him for.

Definitely a fair deal, thought the boy with an internal snort.

Naruto scratched his hair and massaged his temples. Ugly, muddled questions came with ugly, muddled answers apparently and it still did not feel remotely right, moral, honourable, or anything approaching such to torture Muta. The boy was glad he was not leading the team.

It meant he was not the one to make the choices. He could still agonize like a coward on the sideline, playing the innocent offended by the actions of others, while Tiger had to assume. Tiger had to endure.

It felt safe but disgusting. The boy sighed as he felt more or less just as confused as he had been at the beginning of their discussion.

"Let's get back to it," said Yuuki suddenly, plucking the strings of her instrument with enthusiasm.

Naruto was thankful for the distraction and started to juggle his knives. He would not solve the conundrum right now. Maybe there was no haste to do so. His Jijie had strongly advised he take his time and seek others and Naruto would do so.

* * *

When Tiger and Dog joined them, the man had an indecipherable expression while the teenage girl was wearing her undercover version of a long face. Naruto concluded they had found nothing, which Tiger confirmed with a shake of his head.

The group of four kept playing the minstrels for another hour, the sun leaving its place to a slowly rising moon. Under the profusion of streetlight, Naruto rediscovered Yugakure. The poverty and misery seemed to be erased by the artificial lighting and the city appeared joyful and almost agreeable to the boy. Until he saw a one-legged girl in rag beg for a few ryo not far from the place they were playing.

He wondered for a second where Konoha hid its misery. He had never seen any kind of beggar in his hometown but his newly amassed experience was telling him the Hidden Leaf Village had its share of people society had abandoned on the side. Where were the few who did not get to enjoy the wondrous evenings he loved so much? Who even were they?

Slowly, they walked back to the Bathhouse. The establishment offered more than simply baths: one could also rent a room, from a very cheap one to a luxury suite. When the estranged tower, roosted on its rocky emergence, appeared, Naruto had to hold a breath of surprise.

Thousand of lanterns were shining red around the building, bathing it in an otherworldly light. Rumours of laughter and various smell of food were carried by a light breeze and the boy could not help but smile. It very much felt like Konoha. Without a word, the four crossed the bridge, Naruto once again feeling the tingling shudder of passing through a barrier. Much like earlier, his teammates either had not noticed or did not care.

This time, Kinoe stopped at the reception and asked for a cheap room for four. After a minute of bartering, the employee manning the counter gave the man a few directions, a key, and a smile.

Naruto soon discovered that the visible part of the tower was only a third of it and held only the more luxurious facilities. The large rocky protrusion it was standing on had been carved much like soil by an army of ants and countless rooms, baths, and bars were open to people who wished to keep a tighter leash on their purse. The four ate quickly and took the direction of their room.

The boy saw it was far from uncomfortable as the room he entered had everything one could wish for. At this point, however, he could have slept in a ditch, if he were to be honest, as he realized how tired he was.

Too many emotions and too much thinking still took a toll on him apparently.

"What's the plan for tomorrow?" He asked tiredly, removing his clothes one by one, not caring about the sideway smile of Cat and the low whistle of Dog.

"It'll be a repeat of today," informed Tiger in his monotone. "However this time, Cat will coach you on seamless information gathering."

Naruto looked at his team leader with eyes that screamed "huh?"

"Asking questions without looking like you're asking," explained Cat.

"Oh."

"Exactly. Now let us get to sleep. The mission is far from over."

The following day, however, yielded no more result than the previous one, much to Naruto's surprise. The morning had been an enlightening lesson about gossip, courtesy of Cat, and the afternoon a crash test of the boy very freshly acquired knowledge. Playing the innocent, slightly-too-curious kid had been funny at first but Naruto soon realized no one knew anything about Oto-nin, the Akira -whatever it was-, or a new drug dealer in the place.

When the same pattern repeated the day after, slow mounting frustration replaced surprise and Naruto saw Tiger appear as if he was actually worried. The boy was immediately put on edge, as something that could visibly worry his squad leader was not anything he wanted to have to deal with.

On the fourth day since their arrival, the tension was high when the four undercover ANBU met once again in their room.

"It's impossible!" Exclaimed Dog, throwing her hands in the air, pacing around in their shared room. "Nobody knows anything! Zero! We could be chasing after ghosts for all we know!"

Ignoring the younger girl's rant, Cat looked at her leader. "They are so completely under the radar it is worrying. It is impossible to set up shop in Yugakure without attracting attention. The fact no one will tell us anything is telling of the situation."

Tiger nodded. "Either they are not in Yugakure-"

"Which we agree is impossible," summarized Cat.

"Or they bought all the big shots to ensure complete silence around their ops," completed the man. "Whatever those ops are." He added as an afterthought.

Silence fell in the room until Naruto broke it.

"Tiger?" The boy dared, not knowing if it was his place to interrupt.

"Yes, Maru?"

"Err, I might have… Hmm… Gotten impatient and fucked up?"

Tiger looked at the boy with undivided attention.

"Well, I told Cat about it but… The fact is, I'm nowhere as good as you three so I might have asked a few questions that were too… Let's say direct. A few people looked at me funny." The boy explained hesitantly, shame colouring his cheeks red.

Tiger looked at Cat for confirmation. The woman only shrugged. "It would have happened sooner or later. Maru did as expected, considering his lack of experience. It should not have been a problem, had we inquired about any other business."

The man nodded and threw Naruto a glance the boy interpreted as him being in the clear for now. Silence fell again as Tiger joined the flat of his hands under his chin, entering a pensive state of immobility.

"Where do we go from here?" Whispered Naruto to Cat who shrugged and answered in a hushed tone.

"It depends. As far as I know, we have not been cleared for negotiating with a bigger information broker. Our time table does not allow it anyway: we are supposed to be done in three days, then the mission is over. The rumour mill should have brought us what we were looking for but those Oto-nin value their secrets apparently. Tiger…" The woman hesitated a moment before continuing. "Tried to get more out of some other small fries but either they knew nothing or they knew nothing new."

Naruto internally grimaced at the veiled mention of the fact Tiger had once again cut bits and pieces of fellow humans. The boy realized it was the reason why Dog had followed their team leader. She was the one in charge of sticking everything back into place after the act.

Naruto almost wished there was an innuendo here.

"So… We have no lead?"

"None that I can see or know of," Cat confirmed.

The boy's stomach suddenly churned when a particular thought hit him. Would his third mission be a failure? It was a strangely discouraging thought and very alien to him. He did not like one bit what he had seen since they had set foot in Yugakure and disliked what they had done even more but the thought of failure was unnerving.

He had never been afraid of it before. In the Academy, failure only meant he had to pick himself up. Failure meant a new opportunity to try, provided he wanted it hard enough. Failure had virtually no consequences.

He had yet to fail in his newly started career. Okay, he had died once already but it was not a failure on his part, not really. Him being overwhelmed had not put the mission into total jeopardy. In the end, the captured civilians had been herded safely to Fire Country.

No, he did not know what true failure in ANBU meant. He did not know what far-reaching consequences it could have. And to be honest, he was not impatient to discover it at all. He had a feeling he would not like it. He was certain it would not be nearly as forgiving as the Academy.

Naruto shook his head. He had a tendency to think too much since Tiger had beaten the stupid out of him. A few months back, he would not even have envisioned the possibility of failure, or if he had had, he would have decided to cross the bridge once it was reached.

Maybe that was what he had to do here too? Losing himself in fruitless conjectures would do him no good. The boy frowned. He was totally dwelling on stuff. Naruto Uzumaki did not dwell on stuff. If the mission failed, well he would see then and there what he would do. Naruto felt a small smile crook his lips upward.

It felt good to still be able to come to a resolution. Maybe it was not the most thought out resolution but it was one nonetheless.

What if it was really not thought out enough, though? What if he was being careless? What if?

Naruto groaned silently and resisted the urge to pull his hair and fought against fake, crocodile tears. Sometimes, he really wanted the stupid back. Cat threw him an interrogating glance but Naruto shook his head. Soon, and seeing as nothing new would be decided, the boy rolled himself in his covers and fell asleep.

Naruto awoke covered in sweat, his breathing harsh and laboured, his throat hurting with a lancing phantom pain. The boy's hand shot to his Adam's apple and massaged his neck. Under his rugged fingers, he could feel the thin, almost invisible scar he had inherited from his mission in Rice. His vocal cords had healed rather well, which left his voice only very slightly raspy and one had to know about the wound to find the discoloured line of skin.

The initiate regulated his breathing with a few deep, measured inhales and exhales. Looking around him, he found his teammates sleeping. He had learned to silence his nocturnal terrors: one did not scream in the middle of the night in the middle of three ANBU if it wasn't about a life and death battle.

It was not the first time it had happened. Talking about his experience in Rice Country had been helpful, it had weakened the ghosts, it had banished most of the anguish, it had helped him put a leash on his fears.

Sometimes, though, it would come back full force. Death did not like being trumped.

Rising from his couch, Naruto walked to the bathroom to drink a glass of water and refresh himself. He was finishing his ablution when he felt it: a grating sensation at the limit of his consciousness, barely more than a gut feeling at this point yet rapidly growing, a hazy siren that was morphing quickly into a blaring alarm. He was becoming more and more familiar, intimate even, with this sensation.

As his right hand crashed in the sink he was facing, pulverizing the basin in a shower of sharp fragment, his left hand blurred through one-handed hand seals -Naruto sparred a fraction of a second to thank Dragon for Kiri's stolen method- and the boy leapt in a body flicker to Dog's couch, by-passing a masked figure who was trying to sneak up on him, sending the assassin careening away with a Fuuton: Great Breakthrough.

From the corner of his eyes, he could see Tiger roll out of his bed, his right hand gripping the kunai hidden under his pillow. He did no see Cat before blood, hot and viscous, spurted from someone's severed aorta onto his face, making his reflexively close his eyelids. With a shake of his head, Naruto cleared his vision and saw the shard of ceramic he had torn off the sink sunken deep within a man's neck.

The boy had less than a second to kick the assassin's legs from under him, preventing the man's strike to reach Dog by momentum alone. The long blade sank an inch away from the Inuzuka's back, who had reflexively rolled against the man's body, achieving to throw his aim out.

Behind him, he could hear the Haimura trio tear to shred the one man he had dodged on his hastened exit from the bathroom. The man's cries morphed into a gurgling logorrhea in a matter of seconds.

The girl disarmed the dying assailant and substituted with Naruto's pillow, appearing behind a third attacker who was trying to sneak on Tiger. The boy whirled around and saw Cat dealing with her own problem. The sound of the sink breaking had awakened her just in time for her to take in the sight of someone wanting her death very much. She had apparently substituted with her backpack, immediately delivering a flurry of kicks to her attacker with her long, powerful legs. Naruto saw the female ANBU actually catch the man under his chin -he had spun around-, dropping him immediately yet not without earning a gash on her calve.

With a few hand signs, Tiger ensnared both of his would-be assassin in strong vines. Dog, reaved to the max, could not stop her momentum and skewered the one who had been attempting to attack the team leader's back.

The last man standing, trapped by Tiger's strange wood attack, bit hard on something and a few seconds later, foamed at the mouth as his eyes rolled back in their socket.

Silence fell on the room, the four Leaf ninja breathing harshly.

"Fuck," commented Dog after a while. "Who were those punks?"

"No idea," answered Tiger. "Dog, I want to know why we did not feel them coming at all. Use whatever technique you need. Cat can hold for a minute."

The Inuzuka nodded and kneeled before a corpse, her hands flashing through a complex chain of signs and glowing with the jade green of iryo-chakra as a result. Cat simply nodded and looked in her ruined backpack for some field bandage. Naruto immediately went to help her. Dog's lessons in Rice countryside had stuck to him and he knew how to dress a wound now.

"They have… Some kind of chakra inhibiting drug in their system," informed Dog after a minute. "They are basically invisible even to a very good sensor. And," the girl took a whiff of the rapidly cooling corpse. "They smell like nothing. I mean, now the body reeks of blood but there is no odour. Nothing. That's why the Haimura were fooled.

Naruto nodded absentmindedly, cleaning one nasty cut on Hai's snout. The dog had nearly lost his left eye in the exchange.

"Satin and silk for the shoes," pointed Tiger to no one in particular. "Not a sound made with this kind of footwear. They are practically naked to avoid their clothes rustling. And they painted their entire body black. Professional work." The squad lead observed in a monotone before turning to Naruto. "Without you, we would be dead and cold right now." The ANBU sergeant nodded appreciatively.

Naruto gulped and smiled weakly. "They were kinda… Easy, though. Barely put up a fight."

"Well, they had their chakra blocked. Their adrenaline level was abnormally high; I bet they were on some kind of crack just to not die from the fake chakra exhaustion." Dog explained. "Still, well done… And thanks."

The boy scratched his scalp. "Eh eh, think nothing of it." He mumbled, embarrassed. "They made a weird gamble, honestly."

He was not sure he had much, if anything, to do with detecting the enemies. He might have a lucky star however because even with _whatever it was _that allowed him to just feel what was coming if he hadn't been awake… Naruto shuddered. He had died once already and it was enough for him.

"The gamble should have paid off. It would have with anyone else. We don't have time now but we really need to discuss whatever your sensing ability really is once we are back to Konoha," said Tiger in his unflappable monotone, a hint of curiosity rearing its head at the end. Cat only nodded as Dog gave a "yup".

Naruto acquiesced with a nod and patted a dog absentmindedly. "So… What now?"

"We wait," Tiger uttered tersely.

"For what?"

A knock answered Naruto's question.

"For Yubaba's henchmen."

* * *

Naruto did not know what he was expecting, probably nothing if he were to be honest. Still, nothing could have prepared him for Yubaba.

When Tiger had opened their door, four mean-looking men, led by a younger boy with hair an impossible shade of seaweed green and ocean blue, had immediately entered. The apparent leader lost no time and asked for all four not-so-undercover-anymore ninja to follow him to meet Yubaba.

And so the trek up countless stairs had started. After a while, they had climbed so much it had become ridiculous then humorous to Naruto. The Bathhouse was infinite, or so it seemed. While they travelled, Tiger shared a few information with disguised hand signs.

Yubaba was a very powerful person in Yugakure. She had the few remaining ninja of the old Village Hidden in Hot Waters at her exclusive service, she was feared and respected, and she spoke the local language better than pretty much anyone else.

Translation: she was filthy rich.

Eventually, they had reached a massive door of mahogany, one that had a very specific shade of red that reminded Naruto of something. When the door opened to allow them entrance in a large office -a true treasure cave, in the boy's opinion- it was then that he saw Yubaba for the first time.

He vaguely felt more ninja around them, noted they were outnumbered four to one and signed it distractedly to Tiger. His full attention was set on the _creature_ that was slowly emerging from a thick mist made of pipe smoke. He had vaguely imagined a seductress, someone young, good looking, with eyes of steel and a forked tongue. He was wrong. Yubaba was old, older than his surrogate grandfather, Naruto would say. She was of small stature.

And she had the single, biggest head Naruto had ever seen on a human being, sporting proudly the single, biggest nose the boy had ever had the honour to lay his eyes upon. Yet, remembering Tiger's words from his training -every place was not a place to laugh- Naruto endured.

He could not help, however, but stare, wide-eyed. "It's a rock," he mumbled. "It's a peak, a cape… A cape? Scratch that, it's a peninsula!" The boy silently observed to himself in amazement.

The nail in his coffin was when the old lady -there was no doubt about that, Yubaba was a lady- released from her nostrils a glorious amount of smoke that covered the entire room. A minuscule part of Naruto's brain decided here and there to go rogue and suggested the boy scream "chimney fire!" The rest of his grey matter urged him to laugh at the thought so Naruto bit his hand hard and started to shake uncontrollably, thankful for the veils of fumes that were dissimulating him.

"Is there something you find funny, boy?"

Naruto made use of all of his willpower to stop laughing and straighten his back. The old woman's voice had a very special taste. It was old without a doubt, with all the telling marks of age: raspy, shuddering, quiet. Yet, he could not explain the undeniable authority that rang with it. The same kind of authority Dragon's or his Jjijie's voice carried. You did not disobey whatever order that voice would give.

You did not mock Yubaba.

The boy shook his head hastily, not wanting to take anything, and steadied his voice the best he could. "No, ma'am."

"Good, because I think five dead people in this fine establishment is not a laughing matter. Not that anyone cares about the cretins who attacked you but I have a reputation to uphold. My Bathhouse is supposed to be neutral ground here in Yugakure and it is important for business, boy. Do you get it?"

"Hai, ma'am."

"I'm glad you do. Now I'm wondering what to do with you. I would not blame you normally but no one would dare to attack my clients without provocation and the people who do not fear me a few and far in between. So…" She exhaled another impressive plume of smoke. "Who are you and who did you upset that is foolish enough to not fear Yubaba, mhm?"

The old lady got up from the chair she was sitting on and, walking around a desk that was way too big for her and covered with more paperwork than the Hokage's own, started pacing in front of the four ninja. Naruto glanced, discreetly he hoped, at Tiger who glanced back with eyes that said: "stay silent".

"We are simple minstrels, Yubaba-sama," protested the man, who immediately slipped back to his Kinoe persona, only to be interrupted.

"Yes, yes, spare me, please. I have eyes and ears, more than the pair I was born with. You have been asking questions, rather sneakily I'll admit, but you got caught. The boy was not exactly prepared, huh?"

"I assure you-"

"You assure me nothing. Who are you? Konoha? Kumo? Iwa? Who is this new player you are so interested in?" Yubaba interrupted Tiger again and send all four ninja a look that could have killed them. "Speak." She ordered with the same authority-laced tone she had used until now, only this time, it felt even stronger.

"We are looking for Otogakure." Naruto blurted out, feeling lightheaded and before he could realize he was even speaking. His eyes widened as he suddenly took stock of what he had just said and paled, not understanding why he had spoken.

Yubaba smiled. "Now that's a good boy," she cooed with a raspy chuckle, her sweet tone relaxing Naruto. "Tell me more, boy," she ordered again.

"Menma!"

Tiger cried out a warning but before any of Naruto's teammates could say more, they all found themselves with a dagger under the throat.

Naruto looked at his leader with confused eyes. He did not understand why he was so worked, they were simply reporting to the Hokage after their mission, there was nothing unusual.

No, that was not right. That could not be right indeed. In fact, they were still in Yugakure trying to accomplish said mission. The boy suddenly felt himself waver and reflexively flexed his chakra.

With dawning horror, he realized he had been talking again without meaning it. He stared at the little old lady with wide eyes.

"So you are from Konoha, huh? And you are looking for… Otogakure, was it?"

Naruto reflexively distorted his chakra again and felt wasp of foreign energy leave him.

"Well, you escaping my genjutsu just gave me what I needed to know anyway," chuckled Yubaba. "Now what to do, what to do?"

"You could let us go," offered Tiger in his monotone.

Yubaba chuckled raspily. "I could, I could. That'd mean having beef with people I know nothing about. If I make you disappear, however, I won't hear from Konoha and I'll gain a few points with those… Otogakure people.

Naruto internally blanched. That was not a good start to a negotiation.

"Are you not worried about them?" Tiger did not relent. "They set up shop without you knowing anything about them, for all you know you are next on their list. Or you could have Konoha owe a debt to you."

"Yes, yes, I know very well how Konoha repays her debt and if this Otogakure village wants to strike against me, well, I wish them luck," smiled the lady cruelly. "So, what deal could you offer me that would prove to be truly more advantageous I wonder?" Yubaba asked in a whisper, her smoky, muffled voice taking on a threatening edge.

Suddenly, the blue-green haired boy stepped forward and bent to whisper something into the old woman's ear. Carefully masking his lips with his hands, the four ANBU could not see what was said.

"Is that so?" Yubaba asked suddenly. The boy only nodded in response.

The woman hummed and paced in front of the four ANBU, mumbling in her breath something no one could catch. Suddenly she stopped and faced her prisoners.

"Haku here," she motioned toward the boy. "Tells me that one of you carry the sealing blood. Is that true?"

Naruto, who was running plans in his mind to help his teammates and get out of here, was suddenly torn away from his thoughts at Yubaba's questions. He caught himself before expressing anything he would regret and sighed in relief when the old witch did not eye him harder than any of his teammates.

"It cannot be you girl, you are clearly an Inuzuka given how you smell of dog," said Yubaba while tapping her enormous nose with mirth shining in her eyes for a second. "So who is it, huh… None of you has red hair." The woman suddenly slapped her forehead. "Transformation, of course, Yubaba you idiotic hen," she told herself before motioning to the captured ANBU. "Drop your disguise, now."

The Konoha ninja hesitated for a second before knives started to dig in the flesh of their throat. Tiger simply shrugged and nodded once and all four returned to their true appearance.

Yubaba cocked an eyebrow and blew some air through her nose. "You are losing your touch Haku. None of them has red hair."

The boy shook his head. "The Veil felt it, Yubaba-sama, I'm certain of that."

Naruto felt a drop of sweat appear on his temples. Was it an opportunity to negotiate or would revealing his legacy start even more problems? The boy had no way to know and silently prayed for Yubaba to expose the reasons for her sudden interest.

The old woman must have heard him as she suddenly chuckled. "If one of you knows sealing or better yet, carries Uzumaki blood, I'd be down to negotiate something."

Naruto felt himself relax and breathed out deeply. He paled minutely as he immediately realized his mistake.

Yubaba gave him a wicked smile. "Good boy."

He did not try to talk and immediately started to duck but something heavy and hard impacted the back of his head nonetheless. His body suddenly weighed a ton and he could taste blood in his mouth. He fell sprawling on the floor. His vision darkened and blood pulsed in his ears but through the haze, he could see his teammates explode in a flurry of movements.

* * *

**AN: Cliffy surprise! (How) Will Naruto escape this new situation? Will the mission fail? You'll know all that next chapter.**

**I kinda sorry not sorry for the dastardly move: cliffhangers, unfortunately, are as old as story telling. Next chapter, time for Naruto to be awesome. Leave a review if you feel like it and don't insult me too hard please.**

**P.S: I was kinda anxious to publish that so proofreading might not be up to par. If you spot an ugly mistake glaring at you meanfully, PM me.**

**P.P.S: (forgot to put that here) To anyone who still had doubt, Yubaba and her Bathhouse have been "Spirited Away" from this very movie. Congrats to those who caught it and to those who have no idea what I'm talking about, go watch it. It is an awesome Studio Ghibli animated movie. All credit where it is due.**


	19. Chapter 19 To each their game

**AN: So, the comments for chapter 18 were globally positive but the response was rather timid. Oh well, I can't hit the mark every time. I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

**As a warning, there is no need to tell me "this does not work that way". In this chapter, I modified some canon facts and some accepted fanon ideas and if I did it, it's because the implications were overpowered. One example, often seen in fanfiction: the easily made, portable chakra suppressing tags. If such a tag existed, you have to realize one would only need to just trap the hell out of a place, bring the fight there, and then bam, goodbye overpowered ninja. Orochimaru? No problem. Akatsuki? No sweat. See the problem with it now? Certainly, I could ignore that fact and still make Naruto fight like a retard but that's exactly contrary to what this fic is. So yeah, all in all, a few important changes here and there.**

**Be warned, here in this chapter is another reason this story is rated M.**

* * *

There was a reason a kunai to the throat was an efficient menace, even for a shinobi and especially when another shinobi was holding the knife. It was a bet of whose reaction time was the sharpest and when the edge of a blade was pressed against tender flesh, it was a bet anyone would hesitate to take.

As unlikely as it was, a seasoned jonin could die to a genin if the less experienced ninja was the one holding the kunai. All that was needed was a twitch, a breath too loud, a tension in the shoulders, and the blade would slide across the neck to carve a new smile of the bloody kind.

The Substitution jutsu was of little help either if the hostage was at the mercy of an experienced ninja, for they would undoubtedly sense the build-up of chakra necessary for the technique to happen. At this distance, even without hand signs or any other tell, no one needed to be a sensor to feel chakra being moulded.

Tiger was a seasoned jonin, had been a ninja for as long as his memories could go back, and so had found the one solution to escape a normally deadly chokehold with a nearly hundred per cent success rate. One needed to be a very good ninjutsu user and had high chakra control to pull it off, two things Tiger was and had.

The "trick" to the method was something only ninja interested in jutsu theory realized alone, as anyone would never even consider it a point of interest.

When using a jutsu, the goal was to mix and mould the chakra as fast as one could, to release the jutsu as fast as possible. So no one asked themselves if there was any point to moulding the chakra _slowly_.

It was a hard thing to do. Chakra was a very volatile kind of energy, even more so when moulded, and it relentlessly tended toward a "grounded" state; one achieved either by the release of it as a jutsu or simply by allowing it to dissipate back into the ninja's coils.

Building up the chakra slowly enough so that even an average sensor could not detect it without losing control of it was one bitch and a half, even for Tiger, but the ANBU squad leader succeeded nonetheless.

From the corner of his eyes, he saw Naruto getting savagely knocked out. Time seemed to stop as he watched the boy slowly fall, nearly unconscious from the blow. Tiger replaced himself with a chair, using a more advanced version of the Substitution jutsu that allowed the user not to simply switch place but to appear more or less where they wanted in a certain radius around where they had initiated the technique.

There was some kind of explanation about how space and time did not tolerate two objects using the exam same space and how to take advantage of that but the man did not care.

Both his arms morphed into thorny vines that wiped the two ninja holding his subordinates hostage, maiming their armed hand cruelly. The two men grunted and both were headbutted violently by their captive before their knives could even hit the ground.

Tiger saw Dog go down on her knees, red blood seeping from her open throat, and swore. He had not been quick enough. With a leap, he found himself at the teenage girl's side, his hands already finished with the seals, and slammed his foot on the ground.

A bubble of water condensed around him and Dog in less time than a man needed to blink. The air in the room dried up completely and someone bellowed "down!" when the water exploded.

Tiger looked down at the Inuzuka. With an Olympian cool, the girl had weaved the necessary hand signs and was healing herself, her palms glowing jade green. The man nodded once. The knife probably had not that cut deep.

Turning his attention back to the situation, he took stock of it in a glance. He could see Cat, a thin line of red on her throat, holding a kunai in each hand, weaving and dancing around two guys who could not get close. All around the room, it was chaos. His Suiton: Detonating Water Sphere had thrown around men and treasures alike. One henchman, the one who had been nearest to the attack, was dead and bathing in his blood, every membrane in his body caved or torn by the pressure burst. The rest was quickly getting up, some swaying on their feet and looking around confusedly, blood coming out of their nose and ears, or already circling him.

"Stop, you animals! Stop!" came the furious voice of Yubaba. "Stop this fight or the young one dies!" She threatened with authority.

Tiger froze and slowly turned to where Naruto had been downed. He had apparently received another solid hit or two to the skull if the blood flowing from his scalp was any indication and was sprawled, face against the floor, moving sluggishly, one enemy ninja pressing the tip of a kunai at the base of his cranium. The squad leader swore again, audibly this time. The boy was far from him. Very far.

It should not have been like this. The Bathhouse was supposedly a neutral ground and they should have been sent on their merry way. Yubaba had not allowed him time to think, she had refused negotiation for some reason.

The man lowered his arms and the vines slithered around Cat, immobilizing her. Tiger distractedly noticed she had blood dripping from her ears and reported his attention to the old lady. The elderly woman was anxious about something. She had pretended to not know about Otogakure but something was wrong. He had not yet reached a conclusion on what it was but it smelled fishy.

Despite her boast, Yubaba had no reason to break her neutrality and cross Konoha. The woman was greedy and her establishment and its rules brought her too much money for her to endanger it. Either she was confident she could keep detaining and possibly killing his team a secret -and that was a big mistake on her part- or there was something else. Someone had a mean to pressure her.

Tiger raised a brow. That was not anything he expected but it was a logical conclusion to reach. There was also this problem with fuinjutsu, Naruto, and this Veil, whatever it was. Was there a barrier surrounding the Bathhouse? There was something to exploit here. He just needed time.

"If we stand down, do you swear not to hurt him?" Tiger asked in his monotone, careful to keep a perfect poker face.

"Yes, yes, that's what the deal is in this kind of situation. Men, detain those three cretins and lock them away somewhere deep. Feed them some chakiller to keep them docile." Yubaba barked. "Haku, feed the boy some of it too and tie him up. We have some things to discuss."

* * *

Naruto opened one eye groggily. His head hurt and he felt like hurling whatever was in his stomach. His mouth and throat were dry and for some reason, he could not move without pain flaring up everywhere in his body. Finally, he felt weak, weighed down, sick. He had never been sick, ever and concluded he had been poisoned. He did his best not to groan and kept his breathing steady and silent.

He had to take stock of the situation first and he soon realized it was not bright. His thoughts process eventually cleared enough for him to assess a number of things.

Number one, he had fucked up. Cat had assured Tiger that it was inevitable but if he had not allowed his impatience and frustration to get the better of him, he would have kept his questions discreet and the bunch of wannabe assassins would not have been after them. Number two, he had fucked up. For reasons unknown even to him, he had not warned his squad about whatever barrier fuinjutsu was securing the perimeter around the Bathhouse. He had assumed they knew about it and did not care. Assuming was the height of stupidity in their line of business.

True, had he told them about it that he would not have been able to say much more, as he could not tell the role of the barrier anyway. However, it seemed it _mattered_ very much somehow if Yubaba's last words to him held any truth.

She needed him and it was about sealing and she had detected his Uzumaki blood through the barrier. He had no idea how such a feat of sealing was possible but there was no denying it.

Overall, he had fucked up. Naruto took a silent minute to mentally kick his own ass and berate himself. He did not allow himself any self-pity: not only was it not his way of doing things, he clearly did not deserve it.

Still faking sleep, the boy willed his poor brain to think. What was the best course of action? Considering he was firmly tied, that his chakra was poisoned, and that his head was lancing him painfully, gaining time seemed like a good idea.

Yubaba needed him, alive apparently otherwise he would already be dead. There was a fifty-fifty chance she hoped he had some skills with sealing. Deciding he liked the odds -he had never been much of a gambler anyway- he opened his eyes.

"Got your beauty sleep, boy?"

Naruto opened his mouth to answer something but could only grunt.

"Haku, water if you please."

The boy felt a straw being introduced between his lips. He sucked on it greedily and water inundated his throat. Naruto felt like he was coming back from the dead. He drank for a full thirty seconds before nothing came out of the straw anymore. The boy sighed in content, nodded to the older green-haired boy who stood by him and focused his gaze on Yubaba.

"Now young man, we are going to talk."

Naruto resisted the urge to scoff or scream something idiotic. He dearly wanted to know the fate of his three teammates but a part of his brain supplied that they were probably alive if only as mean to "encourage" him to do whatever would be asked of him. The boy nodded.

"You are of Uzumaki descend," that was not a question, "and I'm in need of the service of a seal master. The deal is simple: you fix something for me and you and your little friends get out free."

Naruto frowned. "What guarantee-"

"You'll get none because you are in absolutely no position to receive any. You have my word and you'll be happy with it."

Naruto growled in anger and bared his canines at the old woman. "I can sabotage your ass so hard your grandmother will feel it. I want to see my companions." The boy grunted with contained anger.

"You watch your tone boy!" Yubaba bit back."You are tied up and powerless. You get to work and I set you free and the first signs of sabotage I see you and your little friends are all dead. Understood?" The witch threatened with a grating tone.

Naruto glared, only for the old woman to glare back. "I see them now and I do your thing, no question asked, take it or leave." The boy retorted with a scoff.

Yubaba snorted and blew a massive plume of smoke through her nose. She hummed absentmindedly for a few seconds, watching the cloud dissipate slowly before she turned back to watching Naruto. Without a word, she rose from her chair, walked around her desk and stood right in front of the boy.

Naruto did not see her hand move. He only felt the burning pain of her slap on his cheek. The old witch could hit hard, very much so.

"Bad young boy, you need to learn to behave."

The boy growled but another slap threw his head sideway as blood invaded his mouth from a busted lip. Yubaba had some heavy jewellery on her fingers.

"You need to learn to respect your elders." The old woman said, striking Naruto once again. "You need to learn to not demand anything from your host." Another backhanded slap drew a long cut across Naruto's right cheek. "You need to learn when to obey." She punctuated this one with one last strike that achieved to massacre his lips.

The boy glared defiantly and spat a mix of spit and blood and Yubaba's overly large forehead. "You need to ask politely." He said with a grin.

The old woman sighed. "I hoped I would not have to go that far. Youngsters these days, don't know what's good for them," she mumbled, turning back to her desk and taking an ornate wooden box.

Naruto eyed her wearily. Was she going to torture him? After being beaten black and blue by the training golems, his pain resistance was rather high but it was not something he wished to experience.

"Do you know what's inside this little chest?" The boy slowly shook his head. "Of course you don't, that was rhetorical. Now let me open it." And joining motion to speech, Yubaba opened the case.

Naruto's eyes widened despite himself as he saw three bloody pinkie fingers in the box. He felt himself go pale.

"I heard your leader like to cut those who don't answer him. I imagine the Inuzuka heal the damage afterwards. I was ready to give them this piece of flesh back if you cooperated but I think…" Yubaba glared meaningly at Naruto. "I'm going to burn those fingers."

Naruto coughed in horrified surprise and screamed at his captor. "What?! No, wait! I'm working for you! Don't-"

Without heeding his plea, the old woman threw the cut fingers inside the fireplace of her office and motioned for one of her guards. The man sped through hand signs and a fire jutsu erupted from his mouth, burning the flesh to ashes.

The boy swallowed thickly and tore his widened gaze away from the flames to the old witch.

"You sneeze in a way I dislike and I cut a piece from them. Do I have your cooperation yet?"

Naruto forced himself to lower his eyes, swallowed his mounting fury, and nodded. He could go berserk right here and now, give in to the smouldering desire to tear into ribbons the ridiculous, ugly, stupid, mean little witch who stood in front of him. However, emotions would not help him right now, he needed a cool heart and an even cooler head. He had plans to make and people to rescue. As long as he cooperated, he had time and he had to make the most of it.

The old woman was going to pay. He would get his teammates out and then, he would cash a check with Yubaba's name on it and he was going to make sure it would be more than she could afford.

Naruto's face was lifted by his chin and Yubaba's glared at the boy, who kept his eyes carefully listless. "I didn't quite hear you, boy."

"Hai, you have it."

The old woman had a wicked smile and cackled. "Good. Good! Excellent! I love it when people are reasonable. Guards, take him away for now and watch him carefully."

Two ninja took Naruto under his armpits and manhandled him up before they walked away and out of the office.

Yubaba whirled around and sat at her desk, where she took a handful of paper. "You all can leave me alone." She ordered without looking up to the three men still in the room, who obeyed wordlessly, closing the double door behind them.

As she heard the telltale bang of the heavy panel of mahogany close, Yubaba relaxed in her seat and took a long drag off her pipe. Suddenly, a body appeared from the shadows, melting out of it like a ghastly presence.

"Yubaba-sama, pardon my asking but… Is that wise?" The seaweed green-haired boy asked his master.

The old woman chuckled. "Do you doubt me, Haku?"

"I admit I do not understand your move, Yubaba-sama."

"Yet it's easy. The Veil must be fixed and this boy can do it."

"Are you not afraid he'll make good on his threat? No one here can vouch for his work. Threatening him did not appear to be the best solution for me." The boy hazarded in a prudent tone.

The old witch simply chuckled. "Tell me, Haku, when would we have met someone who knew of fuinjutsu again if we had allowed this boy to go?"

The boy hesitated for a second. "I do not know, Yubaba-sama."

"Odds are, never. We should not have even met him in the first place. I could not let him go yet I had to find a way to have him work for me. Remind me again, what those four were looking for?"

Haku knew full well it was rhetorical but answered anyway. By now, he had probably pieced everything together. "Information on Otogakure. Something that we do not possess. Given that they are affiliated ninja, they would have been expensive to buy, even more so considering Konoha's reputation. So the option left was to capture them."

"Precisely."

"You made an enemy out of Konoha by doing so. Was that worth it?"

"Once the Veil is secure once again, this will be of little consequences if everything goes like I expect it will."

"It has been trumped once already, Yubaba-sama. What makes you sure it won't happen again? Plus, if the boy works on it, he'll be able to deactivate it."

Yubaba gave the boy a whizzing chuckle. "Oh, Haku. You don't think I'll let him leave alive do you?"

The boy could not answer to that. "Are you certain it won't cost too much?"

"The Veil is worth anything!" Exclaimed Yubaba suddenly, smoke billowing from her nose and ears, her face going red. "Anything, you hear me! I won't allow my baby to be threatened again! I won't allow us to be at the mercy of anyone!"

Haku recoiled slightly and bowed hastily. "I meant no offence Yubaba-sama. You just gave your word and I'm concerned it would damage our reputation."

Yubaba breathed deeply then scoffed. "Pfff, my words? It's been a long time words have lost all value in Yugakure. No, he will work his Uzumaki magic and then we will kill him and Konoha will accept it because we will give them what they were looking for and more."

Haku's eyebrow rose. "I fear I do not understand, Yubaba-sama."

"My dear Haku, do you think Otogakure -whoever those bastards are- somehow broke the Veil to threaten me and my baby for fun?" The old woman asked, a tad condescendingly. "No, of course not. I believe their leader knows full well what business happens in my Bathhouse and I'm quite sure they planted some spies here and there. All of our men are suspects."

Haku blinked. He had envisaged the possibility of course but he had scanned the men under his command and, as a gifted sensor, had not felt any discrepancy. "With due respect, Yubaba-sama, I-"

"Tested all your men, yes, you told me but you did not scan our entire personnel, you couldn't."

The boy stood silently for a minute until the solution came to his mind. "You are setting up a bait."

"Indeed, Haku. As sneaky as they may be, no one will be able to sabotage the Veil two times in a row, not when we will be on the lookout for them and expect them to try. If Oto wants to stay here undetected, they cannot allow a seal master to fix the barrier."

"So the Uzumaki boy is a bait you hope Otogakure will target and overextend by doing so," stated the boy plainly."

"Precisely. I'm counting on you to keep the boy safe and capture whatever scum Oto sends us alive for interrogation. No one fucks with my grandson."

Haku bowed. "As you wish, Yubaba-sama."

The old lady nodded and waved him away. "Yes, that's my wish. Now get back to work and be ready to hunt the bastards."

The boy maintained his bow for another second before he exited the door. He had been chasing after ghosts for more than five months now. He had nearly lost his head when someone claiming to be sent by Otogakure -a new power no one had ever heard of- had infiltrated the Bathhouse, somehow bypassing the Veil and so Haku's notice, to plant a note in the mistress' grandson's chamber. It had taken a lot of convincing to stay alive and prove the Veil had somehow been sabotaged.

Now he had something to work with. He wondered if this mysterious Otogakure organization would take the bait. He just had to tread very carefully for if he were to fail, his mistress and her grandson would be in danger. Also, he would lose his head and he liked it very much on his shoulders.

* * *

Tiger looked at his left hand and at the missing finger. The man sighed; losing his pinkie meant Naruto was alive and they would stay so for as long as he was needed and that was all good news. He would have prefered not losing his pinkie for it.

The ANBU leader shrugged. He supposed those were the risks and missing a finger was nowhere near a career-ending injury so all was good.

Now if only he could generate enough chakra and mould it so as to activate his contingency plan, Tiger would be a happy camper. Unfortunately, the potent drug circulating in his organism kept him from doing so.

It was standard procedure to drug a captured ninja up to his eyes to keep them docile and unable to use chakra. "Chakillers", as the kind of poison was named, messed up chakra flow badly. It could, however, not be used in an offensive way as it was only stable as a liquid that needed to be ingested.

Another way was for a seal master to compose a chakra suppressing seal on the captured ninja but apart from the dead Yondaime and his master, Jiraiya of the Sannin, no one was capable of doing it.

Fuinjutsu was that complicated and even then, it was not miraculous, as far as Tiger knew. There was a good chance the suppression would end up being so complete, it would kill the prisoner anyway.

Chakillers were a safe, cheap bet to use on any jonin and chunin, the dosage becoming much more complicated when it came to genin due to their lower chakra tank. No one ever bothered to capture genin, though. They did not know enough.

The ANBU mulled on all that, all this wonderful knowledge that was entirely useless to him right now. The debilitating decoction was already in his bloodstream so forcing himself to puke would be useless and he had been carefully tied up as an extra security measure anyway.

Their hosts were wary of them and did not underestimate them. He would have felt a minute pang of pride if it had not led to the situation being so annoying. With a sigh, Tiger focused on his chakra again. Eventually, the drug would wear off and he would have a small window of opportunity to activate his fail-safe before some guard came and drugged him again.

He had not been able to activate the contingency plan after the little skirmish, too afraid his light flex of chakra would have been mistaken for an attack. Naruto could not afford a kunai through the skull: that would kill him, jinchuriki or not.

He could have called their bluff, seeing as they apparently desperately needed his skills as an Uzumaki but he had two other teammates to think about, one who had nearly died to a sliced throat, the other who had lost her hearing because of his own jutsu.

He supposed he had been lucky no one had seemed to identify his use of Mokuton. The office had been plunged in smoke and obscurity, his assault had been sudden and extremely quick, and his Detonating Water Sphere had not made things any better but he had expected someone to say something. The fact no enemy had talked was a small favour from Fate he was not going to refuse.

His "gift", as bastardized and unnatural as it was, did grant him faster healing capabilities and higher poison resistance and he had noticed his dose of chakiller had not been higher than the standard one administered to a jonin.

He just had to be patient and keep on trying.

* * *

Naruto scowled. He had been thrown in a cell, cold, humid, and dark and told he would begin whatever his task was tomorrow. He wondered for a second why he was not being put to work immediately but came up with answers he did not like. He rather focused on how he was going to get his teammate and he out of here.

He still felt sluggish but less than earlier and the more time was passing the better he became. His chakra still felt messed up, poisoned. He had access to way less than he was used to having and he could actually feel the Fox' chakra being filtered by his seal and merged to his.

Normally, he had so much and the process was so slow that it felt like a drop added to an ocean. That he could feel it was telling of the sad state of his reserve. Its flow was also rougher than ever. He had the impression his control had been shot back to what it had been before his ANBU training.

Too bad for his captors though, because Naruto Uzumaki did not need his full reserve nor good chakra control to create a Shadow Clone. And since a few weeks, he did not need hand signs anymore. The boy smiled as he looked on the shackles that were keeping his fingers from moving. The smile morphed into a grin. "Suckers," he thought.

He could make Shadow Clone and that was mighty good new but now he had to plan for a bit. The boy inhaled deeply. It was nothing more than a prank. He could do it. It was not different than stealing Jijie's hat from right under the old Hokage's nose.

Except that this time, he did not know the lay of the place, would be ruthlessly killed if caught, and it was not a hat he was trying to steal but his teammates.

Failure meant death and the realization descended upon the blond like a cold trickle of icy water, freezing his spine and heart. He had one shot at it and failure was not a possibility. Naruto refused to acknowledge what would happen if he were to be caught. He was going to save them.

First and foremost, however, he had to know where they were. The Bathhouse, he had discovered, was even larger than he expected, the massive rock it was standing on carved deeply and keeping many secrets.

Focusing on his chakra, he willed it to obey him. The life energy was strangely reluctant but the boy did not relent and gritted his teeth. His chakra was his and his alone to do what he wished with it and he would not allow some old hag and her stupid poison to do anything about that. Beads of sweat soon pearled on his forehead and his breathing grew ragged from the effort he was deploying to mould the chakra correctly. One could say many things about the Shadow Clone jutsu but it was certainly not an easy technique, especially with a chakra system shot to hell. Naruto started humming to keep himself from faltering, the boring sound helping him concentrate.

With a puff of smoke, two clones appeared, free of bindings but looking uneasy. Under the sheen of sweat, Naruto smiled. His replicas were affected by the poison -the substance did affect chakra after all and the clones were just that- but they would do. They had to. With a nod, the original sent them on their way.

The two clones faced the door and looked at each other. One shrugged and, forming a ram seal, got an intense look of concentration on his face. Naruto observed carefully, hoping the poison was not messing his clone too much. They would need a very specific skill he had developed to get out of here, one that was only available to his clones, one that was nowhere near finished, but one he was proud of nonetheless.

With another poof of smoke, the clone seemed to collapse on itself and morphed into… A small, black ball. The original blond sighed in relief. Shadow Clones being constructs of chakra, he had theorized that they could probably further shape themselves into solid objects via a modification of the Transformation jutsu. It was possible. Incredibly complicated and maddeningly hard but possible nonetheless: the black ball laying on the cell's ground was proof of that.

The other clone took the ball and simply dropped it through the tiny barred window opened in the room's door, before using a substitution to switch place with it.

Naruto grinned happily. He had a clone inside the place now. Suddenly, the ball went up in smoke and the boy instantly grimaced when he received the "memories" from the ball-clone and fought back a shudder.

Being deprived of view, hearing, taste, touch, smell, everything, being basically a consciousness chained to boundaries one could not even test was a dreadful experience, no matter how short it was. The boy had to swallow thickly to shake the nightmarish sensation of being lost inside a narrow expense of stifling nothingness. Shaking off his discomfort, Naruto decided to meditate. Maybe the exercise would help his system purge the poison faster.

Outside the cell, the clone lost no time and, after checking quickly if there was no one coming, kneeled in the hallway he was in to focus. It took him a full minute to do what he normally could accomplish in under a second. Like so many switches, his tenketsu collapsed on themselves and shrunk and the night undetectable wisps of chakra he was still naturally exuding wrapped around his frame, forming the Chameleon Cloak jutsu.

In the blink of an eye, the clone was invisible to view, smell, and chakra sense. The replica took a deep breath and began his march. He had a lot of ground to cover.

The next day, Naruto was roughly woken up, quite early too as if being manhandled was not enough, and once his eyes had been covered by a piece of perfectly black cloth, someone guided him through endless hallways to a very large room plunged into darkness.

His view was given back to him and he could confirm what his sensor ability had informed him of already: he was guarded by no less than eight ninja who did not seem like they were joking around. Given that he was still poisoned -earlier that morning, they had forced him to ingest some sort of acrid tasting liquid that Naruto had nearly choked on- he would not dare to attempt anything, even with his left hand free of its binding.

With his chakra going haywire, there was no telling if he could even create any Shadow Clone quick enough to overwhelm his opponents, not taking into consideration that he had no idea of their exact strength and still had not found his teammates.

Now was not the time to act. Naruto had to be patient. It was not something he liked, not something he was used to, but he refused to fuck up again by being impatient.

The blond returned his attention to the large room he was in as a boy slightly older than him -Haku if he remembered right- was lightning torches for everyone to see a bit clearer. The dancing flames of the burning sticks slowly revealed a pattern etched in the one, giant, smooth block of marble that constituted the floor.

Naruto felt his fuinjutsu switch engage despite himself and marvelled for a bit at the masterful composition, his eyes roaming from haikus to prongs and back to haikus. He had never seen such a large array. He knew there was a barrier around Konoha and the array had to be several times bigger to cover the entirety of the town but Naruto had never laid his eyes upon it.

The boy wandered in the room aimlessly, taking in the artful details only someone versed in the sealing arts could appreciate. The daring of one poem, the beauty of one fractal, the mindboggling balance of it all in one actually working piece of art-science.

"This is what we call the Veil," informed Haku in his clear, warm voice. "It detects and registers all who cross the bridge or the waters that surround the Bathhouse."

Naruto nodded. That was the central part of the array and one that was not difficult to identify for him. He was not at the level of whoever had made it -nowhere near that if he had to be honest- but he had scribbled and composed enough to recognize the main components.

There was a seal locking away the identity of each visitor, invited or not, another that locked away the sensing ability of a ninja, and one that melded the two locks together. Naruto smiled: this was the reason he loved fuinjutsu. No one ever said the things sealed had to be material. The art allowed the wildest of things if the practitioner could find the appropriate fractal and poem combination.

An ordeal more often easier said than done, obviously.

"Some five months ago, it was somehow breached and has not been functioning well ever since," the boy continued. "We need you to find what was broken and repair it."

Naruto raised one eyebrow. Those guys really had no idea how the array even worked. There was no need to sabotage the array itself to enter without being detected: with the appropriate composition in a mirrored fractal, one could lock away their identity first to keep the Veil from doing it, he mused with a small smile. The boy frowned suddenly. Haku assured it was not functioning properly anymore and that meant something had been tampered with then.

Naruto turned to face the older boy. "How do you know it's not working anymore?"

Haku smiled ever so slightly. "I'm the Veil's sensor. Until five months ago, I could pinpoint exactly who was entering and leaving the Bathhouse. It took you entering and exiting the barrier several times before I recognized you. It's like this for every visitor now and our security is failing."

Naruto nodded. "I see," he said before trailing off. It felt underhanded but there was a way to sow discord in the enemy's ranks already. The boy hesitated half of a second before mentally shrugging. They had played low, he would too. "Well, I know how they entered to sabotage the array," claimed the blond boy, his voice as neutral as he could manage.

Haku turned toward the younger ninja with a calculative gaze. "Do tell."

Naruto frowned slightly at the order but complied. "They created a seal mirroring this part," he explained as loud as he could, pointing at the centermost bit of fuinjutsu. "The only way to go about it was someone giving them a picture of the array. You have a traitor here."

The older boy stiffened, looked at his subordinates from the corner of his eyes, who were all equally frozen before he hissed threateningly. "I know what you are trying to do, you little scum. One more word and one of your teammate loses his tongue."

Naruto simply rose his hands in surrender. "I'm silent as a grave." He internally smiled. The seed of mistrust was planted, as expected. ANBU had made him a good liar and a decent gambler apparently.

As he expected, Haku had threatened him but the older boy had not called his bluff, meaning he did not know enough fuinjutsu to do so. There was more than one way to trump a sealing array like the Veil; he had just explained the easiest and most probable scenario but certainly not the only possible one.

The blond chuckled to himself. And they wanted him to fix it? They were probably counting on him being too afraid for his comrades. Honestly, Naruto was but he knew Tiger, Cat, and Dog could survive having their pinkie cut off, and now he was certain that there would be no one to call him out on his sealwork. As long as he kept his captor's suspicion low -by pretending to be cowed and afraid- he could do pretty much as he wanted. The Pranking King of Konoha would make himself known to Yugakure it would seem.

For the three days that followed, Naruto fell into a routine. He was awakened early in the morning to be drugged and dragged around blindfolded to the seal room. He could feel that things were tense and Haku often glared at him. The blond only smiled to himself seeing as his plan appeared to be working.

The lunch breaks were long and he was drugged again then but thankfully, his afternoons were short for some reason. Naruto was not sure why they did not force him to work days and nights, or at least faster than he was now. Maybe they were afraid of him exhausting or killing himself. Or maybe they were delaying with some kind of purpose in mind but Naruto could not piece it together. If the defensive system of his own house failed, he knew he would spare nothing to have it fixed as quick as possible.

As soon as he was returned to his cell, the boy would lose no time to repeat what was already becoming a ritual. He created two clones who would then do their little escapist trick and explore the underground levels.

The Rock under the Bathhouse was larger than the boy had expected and even after three entire nights of mapping he had still no idea where his teammates were kept.

It was on the fifth day of captivity things changed. When Naruto awoke a minute before his guardians would come, the blond could not keep a large smile from blossoming on his face.

His clone had spent the night in a most fruitful way, meeting unexpectedly with another clone. A clone of Tiger.

The wooden construct, which had been planted -literally, in the form of a tree- in the entrance garden as soon as they had arrived had morphed back to its human form when a pulse of chakra had informed it that it was time and had sought its master, homing on the original ANBU like a guided kunai.

The replica had reported since twenty four hours already and was looking for Naruto but Naruto had found it first. The wooden clone immediately brought the shadow construct to the commanding officer, who had offered the boy a small but proud smile before giving orders.

The blond could not help but feel relieved. His teacher and he had gone over Naruto's plan and Tiger had re-worked parts of it and ironed out the kinks. The young initiate now knew he had something solid to go with and that at least one of his comrades was in the known. He had yet to found Cat and Dog and that was slightly worrying, however, having discovered his team leader meant one less teammate to look for.

His orders, for now, were simple: keep mapping out the maze that was the Rock under the Bathhouse, find Dog and Cat, and plan for possible escape routes. At the rate he was going, the blond estimated he still needed two to three more days.

* * *

The attack occurred the second night after Naruto found Tiger. The blond had informed his captain that he had a strange schedule that made no particular sense to him and the older man had confirmed it. Yubaba and her men were planning something and Naruto would probably be in the middle of it. Apparently, as the seal master fixing the Veil, he was also an unwilling bait. That was the reason he was not tasked to work on the sealing array as quickly as he could: Yubaba was hoping someone would bite and she was dangling him in plain sight.

Naruto, as he had become wont to do these last few nights, was meditating more than sleeping, trying his best to purge his system from the poison that still kept him relatively weak while staying alert to his environment. That was the disadvantage of those substances: if they were not immediately deadly, one could adapt over time -normally an extremely long time- by circulating the life energy again and again, clearing it in the process.

Naruto thanked HSRB training for the knowledge.

The fact Naruto could even adapt that quickly was, however, due to the Kyuubi. He could feel the overly potent chakra of the bijuu be completely unaffected by the chakillers so Naruto had, with a great deal of care, tugged at the minuscule tether of alien chakra seeping into his coils via the seal and directed its flow everywhere, dissolving the energy little by little into the entire length of his coils rather than allowing it to just immediately merge with his personal reserves that were lying in wait within his Gate of Wonder.

The boy exited his meditative state long before the one he could feel coming for him was within view. Naruto hesitated. Whoever was walking down the hallway carried an intent that spelt death for him, he had no doubt about that.

What he was not certain about, was whether or not he had to shout for help. If he did, he would have to find a convincing excuse to justify a ruckus in the middle of the night. He did not want any enemy to be clued in on his sensory ability. If he did not yell for assistance, he would have to take care of his assailant alone, drugged, and without any weapon.

Also, if he were to survive, he would need to find a convincing excuse as to the corpse that would end up laying around in his cell.

Deciding to play it safe, the boy inhaled a deep breath and readied himself to shout when he felt a second intent following the first.

Whoever was following his assassin around, they were after the assassin, not one of their an ally. That had been the reason Naruto had not detected them at first. The boy exhaled deeply and hesitated for a second before he lay on his pallet, regulating his breathing to fake sleep. He was not finished with the Veil so he would gamble on whoever it was that was following the hitman to interfere before the attack.

A second after, the blond opened his eyes with a mischievous smirk on his face.

On second thoughts, maybe he could make this a hell for both parties involved. Jumping on his feet, the boy approached his door and, taking a deep breath, banged the thick wooden panel, shouting for the guard in post at the end of the hallway.

"Hey!" He yelled in a drawn-out manner. "Can I have some water please!?"

Naruto smiled in satisfaction. He could feel the assassin quickening their walk toward his cell but the shadow was suddenly gaining on them.

"Suckers," he whispered when the rumour of a fight erupted at the edge of his psyche, the whirling emotions of both fighters scratching at the door of his mind.

Straining his ears, he perceived the sounds of people fighting as silently as possible. Unfortunately, the low ceiling of the tunnel, carved from the Rock, happily reverberated the clangs of steel meeting steel and the muffled groans of two men going after each other.

Naruto smiled slightly at the possible -if admittedly convoluted- innuendo. He would be safe for tonight but if his would-be-assassin was captured and knew things, his own workload would pick up for real, which meant his time left to find Cat and Dog would be reduced.

The boy shrugged. Maybe the hitman would know nothing.

The work on the Veil did not change the next day nor the day after and Naruto deduced the assassin had either escaped, knew nothing, or was a tough nut to crack. His routine, however, was modified as he was from then on transferred to a different cell every afternoon, why exactly he did not know.

The annoying part of it was that his watch had been reinforced. Things went on for another four days, during which he had to work harder to trump the vigilance of his guards and eventually discovered his two missing teammates. Drugged with chakillers, one hand tied-up to keep them from weaving hand seals, and scantily dressed, they had been forced to work as hostesses in Yubaba's bathhouse.

Naruto positively seethed at the discovery and barely managed to not blow his cover by kicking the door of his cell down and starting the escape plan immediately when the Shadow Clone's memories came back to him. Only the knowledge that his entire team was counting on him not to blow a fuse helped him to maintain his calm.

The administered dose of chakiller not enough to keep him down anymore, he only made a discreet dent in the wall in the end before he sent a clone to report his finding to his team leader. Tiger nodded, commended Naruto on his level-headedness, and confirmed the second part of their plan, giving him the go-ahead. When morning came, the original blond could not keep a happy smile from blossoming on his lips.

They were getting out of the Bathhouse soon.

* * *

Sometimes, Cat positively hated her job.

"The things you do to keep safe," she thought for herself as she delicately squeezed the erect member of one of Yubaba's henchman, bringing the head to her lips and giving it a sloppy kiss.

The man was quite drunk, she had made sure of that, and she was working her magic to make him putty in her hands. A kunoichi did not need chakra to dominate a weak-willed man, alcohol and a bit of flesh were amply sufficient.

"So~" she drawled seductively in a husky whisper, as she softly dragged her scantily clad body across the man's naked torso, blowing lightly in his ear. "Yuzu, you were telling me Baba was worried?"

"Ohhh," moaned the man, lost in the sensation procured by the slow massage of the woman. He squeaked when Cat squeezed a little too hard. "Ye-yeah, sugar." He relaxed as Cat's hand returned to gentler ministration, helped by her tongue. "Totally mad about those bastards, ya see?"

"Bastard, mhm?" She hummed aloud before one again snaking up the man's body and whispering in his ears. "What bastards, Yuzu darling?" She asked, grinding the silk of her panties against his sex.

"Those, who, oh Kami yes…"

"Tut tut tut, Yuzu," Cat stopped moving suddenly, pinching a very specific point to keep the man from his orgasm. "Bad boys don't get any. The good boys who answer questions, however…" She licked his ear and bit the lobe lightly. "They get to cum."

The man looked at her with eyes somehow both glazed by the alcohol yet betraying a jittery kind of desperation, an urge for sexual release. "O-oto," the man swallowed thickly, moving and grinding his hips desperately, his legs trembling with tension. "Otogakure. They got to her grandson. But we got them."

"Go on..." suggested Cat, revealing her sex and pushing her lower lips against the man's member.

Yuzu groaned desperately, incapable of penetrating the object of his desire as the woman on top of him kept careful control of his movements.

"We... We captured a mole." The man tearfully stuttered, his brain overloaded by endorphin. "Tomorrow! Tomorrow he is gonna lead us to his boss! Please!" Yuzu sobbed.

Cat smiled and deposited a light kiss on the man's lips before she slid back down, engulfing his member in her mouth and rolling her tongue around it, her fingers releasing the pressure point as she withdrew.

With a desperate cry that sounded almost painful, the man twitched and released his orgasm on her face. Exhausted, he watched with lidded eyes as the woman once again seemed to slither around him. He fell asleep as she gently pinched his neck. He would wake up happy, satisfied, and with a very fuzzy memory of his night.

Cat rose from the couch and stretched before she frowned. It had been hard and dirty work but she had something, at last. Yuzu had not made it easy and she had needed to deploy all the treasure of her imagination to get him to the point of strategic pillow talk.

He was a ninja and one of Yubaba's captain after all. Any lesser target would have been a waste of time if league easier to break.

She was simply better than him. Cat addressed a silent prayer to the Flame in thanks for attending the seminar on seduction at the insistence of Anko. It seemed so stupid at the time but here she was, glad she had brushed up on that kind of skills recently.

The woman breathed deeply, absentmindedly suckling on her finger. The last week and a half since their capture had been unpleasant but it was certainly not the worst captivity she had experienced. Granted, she had only been captured once before so she did not have many points of comparison.

After their little showdown in Yubaba's office and their subsequent surrender, Cat and Dog had been offered to work for the Bathhouse or get chopped into bits. Naturally, the woman and the teenage girl had accepted, the alternative not something they envisioned for themselves.

Drugged with chakillers and one hand discreetly bound by wire, the two woman had been given a uniform and tasked with working as hostesses, serving all kinds of wines and spirits to a wide variety of visitors, some more touchy-feely than others.

At least, they had not been forced to do anything degrading, prostitution was something only those willing would do and it was also valid for them, despite their status as prisoners. The serpentine ethos of crime barons was an object of fascination for Cat. For Yubaba, dealing illegal opioids to her clients was entirely fine but forcing a girl to sell herself was not. Not that she was complaining but the moral boundaries were so random.

Anyway, Cat had refused to be useless. Trusting Naruto and Tiger to plan something -a trust that had been rewarded just yesterday when an impossibly _invisible_ Naruto had contacted her-, she had endeavoured to gather intelligence on their temporary foes. She had quickly pinned her target and had begun a dangerous game of seduction. The man -Yuzu- was certainly not stupid, qualifying as a good chunin ability-wise. He had been one of the two to hold her back, with the help of a comrade, in Yubaba's office.

So Cat carefully dosed her approach, a tenth subdued, a quarter impressed, a third open to ideas, a hint of defiance, and a few touches here and there of meek and shy. Men absolutely loved to dominate after all, in most of the case at least. After five days of an ever-evolving dance, she eventually serviced him for the first time, ramping up from there, exerting more and more control during their short meetings, making him run his mouth more than he should have.

Yuzu was a good chunin but she was a good jonin and she knew her stuff. Konoha's T&I section were some of the best and ANBU beneficiated a lot from their lessons.

The intel was interesting. Yubaba knew of Otogakure, was being threatened by them, and if Cat was right, it was all linked to the mysterious Veil they wanted Naruto for. Yubaba had nothing on her enemies, otherwise, she would have negotiated something, yet she seemingly had the opportunity to learn more.

Cat smiled. She absolutely had to communicate this info to her leader. She hoped Naruto would come again tonight. It was risky but the chance was golden.

Suddenly, she realized her index finger was in her mouth and spat with disgust. She did not know how Anko could swallow _that_.

* * *

Hiruzen Sarutobi took the cup of sake in front of him and, looking at the little ape squatting before him, held it to toast with the summon.

"Health and prosperity," wished the old man to the capuchin.

"To you too, Friend-summoner."

The man and the ape both smiled and drank as the Hokage kept processing everything he had learned. Chichi -the monkey- had travelled three times between Konoha and the Great Mother Shrine, relaying the findings of Ibiki and his helpers.

After the first report, Hiruzen had chosen to expand the chief interrogator's stay. The old ninja wanted to understand his former teammate's plan, wanted to know what Danzo knew exactly.

The fact Ibiki firmly believed -he was not sure but probability he was right was extremely high- that Danzo had orchestrated the Academy sabotage possibly in order to get Naruto in ANBU was… Disconcerting, to say the least.

His old teammate had never hidden behind falsities: Danzo was rather open on a number of things, philosophically and politically, and Hiruzen knew it was because he wanted to. The man had no qualm about planting a dagger between your shoulder blades and was pretty much direct about it, as far as body language and veiled intent went.

Hiruzen Sarutobi was a shinobi and therefore, had no qualm either about the wedding of daggers and shoulder blades and hence, Danzo had had a healthy respect for him. They had also been teammates and as such, there was a mutual trust.

They had also been at each other's throat concerning a fair number of subjects and only the balanced views of Dragon had tempered their fights. Hiruzen Sarutobi was a shinobi indeed but he believed strongly in the Will of Fire, in the necessity of its ethic and moral.

Firstly, they were a stopping power to the might of ninja, who would have been cruel rulers otherwise, squashing un-chakra'd people under their boots. Secondly, justifying the means by the ends was a surefire way to make enemies. Thus, Hiruzen had done his best to spread the Will of Fire to the surrounding nation, doing his utmost to convince Kage and Daimyo aline that everything was to gain if only they stopped thinking in terms of competing countries, opposing villages, and hostile groups.

His hopes had been dashed big time by the Second War and he had allowed Danzo and the Daimyo to convince him of the necessity for the Third but at least, he had kept a leash on the atrocities.

Danzo did not believe in any of that. Or rather, the man believed strongly in the Will of Fire indeed but refused to consider for a second that it could spread further than Konoha. Hiruzen's old teammate had a very clear cut view of things: only the village mattered, the rest was just that: the rest. The negligible quantity, those who did not count, the others, _them_. Never _us_.

Hiruzen could understand that. It had been the way their sensei, Tobirama Senju, Nidaime Hokage, had been. So the Sarutobi never blamed the Shimura; tried to convince him yes, argued with him, very much so, but never blamed him

Then, with the genocide of Uzushiogakure, Danzo had gone off the deep end. To protect the village, it was not enough anymore to trample enemies and bystanders alike. No, to protect the village, sacrifices were needed. To protect the village, they had to murder a part of it.

Hiruzen knew who had died in the last stand of Uzu and so had closed his eyes. He himself had been horrified and worried where he should have been firm and brave but he had closed his eyes. Allowing Danzo to sacrifice a minuscule part of the village to save the greater number. Allowing the fourth ANBU company to take root. Betraying the Will of Fire.

Sake swirled in the Sarutobi's cup and he noted Chichi was eyeing him with a grave face, no doubt feeling his melancholy. Hiruzen smiled wistfully at the little summon.

After the Kyuubi's attack, Danzo had immediately identified Naruto as a fantastic deterrent whereas Hiruzen could only see a child. That had been the greatest of their fallout -almost ironic considering Hiruzen had not done much for Naruto in the end- and a few years later, his old teammate had tried to assassinate him. Hiruzen, in the name of their old friendship, had stayed his hand, and the Daimyo himself had asked for a lenient sentence. He knew he risked Danzo fomenting another plot against him by doing so but he accepted. He had lost too much and killing his once teammate would have been the last straw for his heart.

And now, now Ibiki was providing him with some disturbing conclusions and Hiruzen did not know what to make of it. Yet. He had informed Dragon and the man had tasked some absolutely loyal men of his to go through the old Root archive and scour the underground for a possible, undiscovered base.

His read on Danzo was less than perfect. The man had spent a long time in the shadows then had been exiled. Maybe his banishment had changed him. Hiruzen wanted to believe it was possible. Still, the question remained: why did Danzo want Naruto in ANBU? What was he so afraid of?

The Hokage frowned and rubbed his temples. Why was his old teammate an ass and not more forthcoming? Why the need for secrecy?

Hiruzen sighed and downed the rest of his sake. It was time to recall the troops; he had amputated his forces from some of his best jonin along with three very promising genin teams. He could not prolong their mission any longer.

"I ask you to play courier one last time Chichi."

"I'll be happy to be of help, Friend-summoner."

* * *

**AN: Holy Cow, did I just give Danzo some kind of backstory? I legit did not see it coming and I'm writing this story! Sometimes, you have to let it carry you. Anyway, I think Naruto was cool in this chapter. I mean, he turned invisible, explored the dungeon he is kept in, found his squad, prepared their escape... I think that was cool. Tiger and especially Cat were cool too. Warning: no need to hate on Cat, she is a kunoichi in ANBU, her body is another weapon.**

**Explosions come next chapter.**

**I've honestly no idea how the softer kind of action is appreciated so leave a review! Remember that I feed on them and given how big this chapter is, I'm starved!**


	20. Chapter 20 I'm a soldier

**AN: This chapter 20 was horrendously difficult for me.**

**I don't even know.**

* * *

Naruto jolted awake, his eyes blinking urgently to dissipate the last remnants of sleep that still made them heavy. Reflexively, he directed his chakra through his coils, warming up his body before he sat in a lotus to absorb the memories of his clones.

He groaned slightly. There was new information and there was a new plan. Propping himself up on his feet, he dusted himself before he willed a shadow clone to appear. The replica simply shimmered its existence into reality and took his place on the couch. The original took a little pin he had hidden in messy hair and eyed it for a second. Delicately, as if afraid he was going to break it, he channelled wind chakra through the object, forming a sharp edge with which he proceeded to cut the ninja wire binding his right hand. Rolling up the wire for later use, he then picked the door's lock open.

A bout of anger fuelled stupidity had reminded him that the Substitution jutsu was not teleportation. Seething at the state Dog and Cat had been reduced to, he had attempted to escape using the same technique as his clones only to crash against the heavy door. The shock had jumbled his brain straight.

It had also kickstarted a series of thoughts about the Substitution jutsu. How come his clones, even though they were tangible, could apparently phase through matter? Could he maybe substitute himself with the door itself or would that cause a ruckus? What were the limits of the Substitution jutsu exactly?

The lock clicked in a satisfying way. Naruto opened the door ajar and strained his ears. He had a bit of time. Not losing any second, the boy stifled the flow of his chakra, shrunk his tenketsu, and draped himself in the Chameleon jutsu. His silhouette was slowly erased out of view and sensing capacity. Naruto slithered in the hallway his cell was in and delicately closed the door, locking it again.

Tiptoeing down the hall, he was met with the vision of the two sentries assigned to guard his corridor half asleep. He took a slow, deep, yet silent breath and held it as he moved past the two ninjas, careful in each of his movements to not knock into anything or rustle his clothes. Having eventually reached a safe distance away from the guardroom, the boy relaxed and bent down.

His clones had explored the maze carved in the Rock under the Bathhouse but it was the first time he was actually using those memories. Learning by shadow clones was not an exact science and information would tend to get lost if not worked on immediately. Naruto had done his best to work on a mind map in his cell but a chain of dark corridors made for a poor plan.

Until one of his clones got the secret of navigating the labyrinth: carved low on the wall, nigh undetectable because of the poor light, were lines of different pattern, each leading to a different part of the underground levels. The boy smiled when he found the wavy pattern he was looking for. First stop would be weapons.

Naruto had lost any precise notion when he finally arrived before his first objective. He had just spent maybe half an hour in the dark tunnels, at least he hoped so. Their time table wasn't large enough to allow for much delaying. Hence why the boy swore silently when he saw that the weapon cache he had chosen to pilfer was, for once, guarded.

"Fuck," he thought virulently. Of course, it was not going to be easy, he should have known better than to hope. Still invisible and undetected, he eyed the two men. He shuddered in trepidation at the thought of killing them. The strange sentiment of vindication that he found was welling inside him made it somehow worse.

_They_ had messed up with _him_, with _his team_. They deserved it.

A traitorous part of his brain claimed their innocence in a whisper. Those two men weren't the one who had cut his teammates' fingers. Yubaba was the one responsible, the witch was the guilty party. The men under her followed her orders as it was their duty.

His duty was to his team and escaping meant they needed weapons. The two guards were the necessary victims of circumstances, like Muta.

Naruto grimaced at the thought.

He could knock them out. He was invisible silent and deadly yet he could also choose to be merciful. He knew where to pinch to instantly make a man unconscious. He felt a frozen caress slither down his back. He could not risk a fight, he did not know how strong the two guards were. Subduing one meant the other would be alerted, call for help, alarm the entire Bathhouse if Naruto wasn't quick enough to knock him out in turn.

The boy eyed his right hand with anger: he didn't have enough sensibility and control to force both men under at the same time. One he could save, the other he would need to kill with his pin. His glance shifted from his lame hand to the guards. So the one on the right was going to die because his lucky star had rolled the wrong dice for today while his comrade on the left would be allowed to live.

Naruto felt sick. They weren't like the Oto-nin of Rice Country. They hadn't abducted citizens of Fire Country for some nefarious goals. They were simply guarding a door he needed access to if he wanted to free his team. They were the _others_, the negligible party, those that could be sacrificed. To Naruto, their lives were worth less than his teammates'. His duty dictated as such and his own selfishness confirmed it.

In his heart, however, he could not ignore that those same lives he was contemplating to take were precious to someone else. Try as he might, he could not silence the part of him that begged him to offer the guards a fair fight at the least.

The boy closed his eyes and swallowed thickly before he opened them again and looked at the two guards intently. They were oblivious to his ghostly presence, exchanging a few words once in a while with an occasional chuckle. One was a young man barely out of his teen years, eyes shining mirthfully and a grin on his lips as he bantered with his companion, a mature, bearded man who wore an appeased smile.

The words of Cat came crashing on him and he suddenly hated nothing more than being there and doing that. He felt like he was going to drown when he was reminded of Tiger's words.

There was nothing but the family; nothing but the team.

Methodically, Naruto hardened his heart into steel and covered it with a layer of frost, ignoring the two men as they talked about the pie the youngest's girlfriend had baked yesterday, refusing the nonchalant joy that pervaded the limit of his mind, not seeing the sparkle in the older man's eyes.

Without a sound, he stalked forth and stilled his breath. Slowly, he moulded chakra in his hara, forcing the flow the sharpen into a cutting edge.

Using jutsu was actually possible for him while in his shrunken tenketsu state. He just had to use a monstrous load of chakra. That was the reason why the Shadow Clone jutsu had been almost easy for him to learn. So Naruto moulded and moulded until he felt like he would explode and channelled the unstable energy through three hand signs of his left hand. Strand of wild chakra erupted from his shrunken tenketsu and the Chameleon jutsu was distorted.

Naruto looked at the surprised faces of the two men with murder and self-loathing in his eyes.

The Fuuton: Wind Bullet flew out of his mouth and forward with the whizzing sound of a high speed rotating saw and faster than a hummingbird. The shell-shaped, whirling aggregate of wind chakra tore through the skull of the first guard who died before understanding his life was over.

Naruto was already on his comrade before he could register the sudden appearance of the boy who was already slowly disappearing again. He had the pin squeezed hard in his numb right hand as he plunged it into the man's eye, channelling the remnant of his wind chakra still howling in his coils through the innocent object, turning it into an invisible and vicious dagger. The second guard crumbled, his brain bisected.

The boy breathed deeply as he fought against the wave of nausea that threatened to submerge him. Hie eyes prickled and he blinked furiously. His face scrunched up at the smell of iron so thick he could taste it. He was covered in blood, the dissimulation technique slowly adjusting to it. Naruto fought tooth and nail against the dizziness, refusing to be weak.

Eyeing the two corpses dispassionately, he allowed the chakra to dissipate. When the two new ghosts manifested themselves in front of his eyes, he looked right back with dead eyes. "I'm sorry," he muttered in a monotone.

He truly was even if they did not care about it. However, they were the _rest_. He needed to save his teammates.

He crouched in the rapidly expanding pool of blood and picked the lock. The armoured door opened to reveal a treasure trove of various weapons, carefully stored under protective wraps and neatly arranged by type. Naruto lost no time and seized what was needed for his teammates and himself, strapping a kunai holster to his left thigh, a shuriken pouch in the small of his back, and a few extra in a third pack before sliding the belt holding a chokuto between his shoulder blades.

Willing two clones into existence, he departed as his replica transformed into the two dead guards before they dragged them inside and locked the door to the weapon cache.

Following another set of carved lines, Naruto took turns upon turns, meandering for another thirty minutes in the maze before he was met with the sight of his objective. In front of him was a guardroom keeping access to the hallway where Tiger and the Haimura trio were kept. He could walk past the enemies while invisible but could not rightfully open both Tiger's and the Haimura's cells without being detected.

He had to eliminate eight more ninjas by himself. That was by far the hardest part of the escape plan. He could probably take one or two down while invisible but the other six would then be on their guard and work their way around his camouflage technique. He had prepared a plan obviously but the last weeks had been a lesson on how plans tended to crash down when met with reality.

Naruto unsheathed his chokuto, gripping it in his right hand as he palmed three shurikens. With a massive flex of his chakra that immediately put the eight ninjas on guard, two shadow clones appeared beside him, blade drawn and steel stars in hand.

All three Narutos threw the shuriken which shimmered for a fraction of a second before they multiplied from nine to nine-hundreds. Steel started to ricochet in the narrow guardroom tearing sparks from the walls and blood from the enemies. Naruto and his replicas charged inside the room blade high and fed with so much wind chakra they were vibrating eerily.

Blood erupted as steel bit into tender flesh. Three Yugakure shinobi fell, dead before hitting the floor. Naruto opened his tenketsu, the camouflage jutsu dispelled by the brutal influx of chakra. The boy intercepted a kunai strike from a tall ninja. Using the reach of his chokuto to his advantage, the boy stepped forward, angling his wrist. The invisible edge of his wind chakra severed the hand of his enemy. The man cried out but before Naruto could kill him, he had to roll out of the way of a sword.

He eyed the new opponent who had already dispelled a shadow clone. Without the memory transfer, Naruto would have been nailed through the neck. The man was a better swordsman. Keeping the new menace at a distance with three kunai, the blond backed against a wall and sped through three one-handed hand signs.

A blast of wind lifted the nearest, unsuspecting Yugakure-nin off his feet and slammed him against the roof. The other instantly anchored themselves to the floor with chakra.

Naruto flickered right behind his Fuuton: Great Breakthrough and skewered one ninja, ignoring the swordsman completely. The man whirled around fast and lunged.

The boy jumped in a roll when the explosive tag he had left behind him in his body flicker detonated. All sound was instantly robbed from him as he was blown away, pieces of shrapnel embedding themselves in his left side. One flash of pain made his vision go white for a second before he felt something hot and viscous coating his clothes. The boy fought against the dizziness to straighten himself. he could not stay on the ground. His vision was swimming but he could see no one in front of him. He whirled around.

Pain exploded in his stomach as someone stabbed a kunai deep within his guts. The boy felt his grip on his sword fail. A distant part of his brain shuddered at the thought of what Cat would say to him. The blade in his abdomen started sliding up and the boy latched on the enemy's arm and wrist, keeping himself from being gutted completely.

His breath was ragged and he could feel his blood escaping him. He saw an elbow strike coming for his head. The blow would knock him out, his grip would falter, he'd die with his intestines spilling out.

Naruto pushed against the man and flickered, using all the chakra he could. The kunai pierced something and pain exploded in a blinding flash. The two intertwined bodies met something hard. Harder than the shinobi's body Naruto was pressed against. Something hot fell on his hair and the back of his neck.

The boy stumbled back. He had flattened the enemy against a wall with his Body Flicker, breaking everything there was to break, reducing the internal organs to mush, giving the man a concussion. The Yugakure-nin had vomited blood and bile on his hair before dying.

Naruto fell. He could not see anything. He could barely hear. He felt tired. He felt weak. Every inch of his body felt painful and heavy. He needed sleep. Whatever he had come here for, it could wait. Something slapped him across the face. Naruto blinked.

Above him was… Him. Other-him had his face marred with a frown. Naruto observed with fluttering eyes as his replica weaved through hand signs. Though muddled by exhaustion, his brain decoded the message automatically.

_Hang on. I fetch Tiger._

Naruto felt drowsiness submerge him and his eyelids suddenly seemed to weigh tons. He closed his eyes, only to be slapped again.

_No falling asleep._

A hand seized his hand and forced him to look down. Naruto felt his eyes widen in horror at the sight of his mangled stomach. Fear and panic slithered around him and threatened to blank everything out.

A third slap brought him back to reality.

_Calm. Meditate_.

The boy swallowed thickly -there were blood and bile in the back of his throat. Despite the fatigue, urgency kept him from falling asleep and surrendering to his death. He willed the pain away and plunged into the chaotic flow of his chakra, soothing the energy and directing it to the wound.

Tiger focused on the wound like he had rarely focused on something. Even his delicate rhododendrons could not hold his attention like the sight of his initiate dying. A replica had sliced the door to his cell open, freed him, and brought him in front of the cooling body of the original.

The sergeant had not been serious when he had suggested, so long ago already, the boy to try and see if he could survive being gutted, by the Flames! He had immediately sheathed his hands in healing chakra. He was nowhere near as good as Dog but the Mokuton offered a lot of advantages, no matter how downgraded his version was.

It took him half an hour to carefully tie everything back together, helped by the conscious efforts of the boy he was healing. With mild fascination, he observed the wound disappear in front of his eyes, the flesh regrowing, the viscera regenerating, everything stitching itself back together and into place in a symphony of hissing and bubbling blood until the boy's stomach appeared good as new. The Uzumaki bloodline did miracle with a little help.

Soon, there was only a pale, rather discreet scar left. Naruto's eyes fluttered open and a weak smile blossomed on his lips.

"Hey, sergeant. Happy to see you." The boy croaked. He felt like shit. He felt like he was covered in shit, actually.

Something licked his cheek and he angled his head to see La and his brothers. The Haimura trio was out.

"Hello, Maru." Tiger nodded before he eyes the guardroom they were in. "You made a mess."

The boy's eyes tightened and he looked away. "I did," he acknowledged in a dead tone. The man gave his shoulder a light squeeze and offered Naruto a small smile.

A true small that warmed his heart as it was the first time he was seeing Tiger smile; it was not one of his persona nor an act. His team leader was smiling at him.

"Let's go get the ladies." Tiger proposed in a monotone. The hounds answered with a yip of agreement.

* * *

Haku eyed the boy he was once again escorting to the sealing chamber. The blond was chatting mindlessly about _stuff_. Really Haku could not say for certain what was the subject of their discussion but there was no doubt they were discussing. The green-haired boy would have found it pleasant if his instincts were not screaming at him that something was wrong.

No one liked being a prisoner but the blond had never protested. He was treated fairly, was kept well-nourished, and sent back to his cell only at night but still. He had made no attempt to escape, no word of defiance had passed his lips save for the rather obvious and successful attempt at sowing discord among the men of the Bathhouse.

The tension had spiked and relaxed once the spy the blond had predicted was caught trying to sneak their way to his cell, kunai in hand. Haku had intercepted the man himself, someone he had recruited more than three years ago, a guy he could have sworn was loyal.

In addition to the slight to Haku's honour as a shinobi, it had a few frustrating days to break him, confirming the traitor was not simply bought or threatened but indeed loyal to their enemies. It was worrying as it meant Otogakure had been operating in Yugakure for a long time.

Now, however, they had an objective, as the spy had revealed the identity of his contact. Haku was already preparing a squad of ninja he trusted absolutely to go and capture the man. They would unravel the network lackey per lackey, unearth Oto's activities and destroy them.

They had threatened the Bathhouse and it was unacceptable. They were not the last ninja of Yugakure just for posturing and Haku was going to make sure to show them just that.

The teenaged boy returned his attention to his prisoner. Now that the spy had spilt his guts, there was no real need to keep him working at the slow pace they were going at. However, if they changed anything, it would doubtlessly alert the blond something was up. He had not acted up yet but there was no need to give him a reason to.

The group eventually arrived at the Veil chamber and Haku watched as Naruto switched in fuinjutsu mode. It was always a fascinating sight to behold, how their babbling captive would suddenly get a focused light in his eyes as he went to work on the intricate array of seals. The boy was passionate and agreeable and Haku felt it was a great shame he was going to die as soon as his work was done.

He squashed the feeling. He was part of a team of Konoha ninja; while they weren't declared enemies, they certainly weren't allies. It just felt like such a waste for the situation to have turned like this. Haku understood, however, that owning Konoha some favour was not something Yubaba wanted.

He dearly hoped they would not go to war for an Uzumaki who knew his way around seals. Considering he had been sent in the field probably not but the ways of the greater Villages were often impenetrable. The Bathhouse could stand its ground in Yugakure and defend its turf but if Konoha really wanted it, Haku knew they would die a painful death before realizing it was even happening. He was afraid his mistress was overestimating her position.

He had found a home in the Bathhouse and he was going to protect it.

Like his oath needed him to.

* * *

The two ANBU operatives and the ninken navigated the maze as quickly as they could, threading the darkness with the help of Naruto's knowledge and the ninken's keen nose, avoiding the few hostiles as they went higher and higher in the Rock's carved innards. Soon, light made itself more present and they reached the lower habitation levels, where they themselves had been lodging a week and a half ago.

Naruto lost no time and opened an empty room where Tiger and he showered, washing away the grime and gore they -and the boy in particular- were covered with. As they were clothing themselves back, Tiger motioned toward Naruto's clothes.

They were torn, drenched red, and smelling foul. "We can't go like this."

The boy lowered his eyes and, upon constating the state he was in, racked his brain for a solution. A smile quickly found a way to his lips. "I know what we're going to do."

Tiger only raised one of his eyebrows in a questioning fashion. Naruto moved toward the one drawer standing in the room and opened the doors, revealing some simple yukata made of cotton.

"We're going to take a bath of course." He said, his smile growing larger.

It took Tiger less than a second to consider the idea. The Bathhouse was always full of people. With one subtle transformation, two uninteresting faces would be drowned by the number of clients. There was one problem though: they could not carry any large weapons.

"We will need to abandon our chokuto." He ùused aloud before deciding it would not matter much. Kunai and shuriken were just as deadly. "Alright, you know how to don a yukata?"

Naruto fidgeted a bit and shook his head no.

"Well, let's get you dressed then."

Tiger helped the boy don the bathrobe before he draped himself in his own. The sergeant looked at the trio of dogs.

"We need you small, guys."

The hounds yipped in acknowledgement and, in a triple puff of smoke, transformed into three innocent and harmless looking puppies. Naruto snickered and the one he knew to be Hai growled at him.

"Peace. We go in. Maru, stay on alert for your clone's memories."

Five minutes later, one inconspicuous man dressed in a blue cotton yukata walked down the hallway, followed by an unremarkable boy dressed the same, himself followed by a trio of trotting puppies. A father and his son here to enjoy the famous Bathhouse of Yugakure. Their wooden getta were hitting the floor at a leisurely pace as the father was discussing -low enough so as to not disturb anyone- the good harvest of tea they would undoubtedly make with his son.

Naruto and Tiger reached the emerged part of the Bathhouse soon after and the boy could not help but fill his lungs with a deep breath of fresh air. It was made heavy by the smoke of pipes, the smell of food, and the scent of various perfumes but it was undoubtedly many times better than the stifling atmosphere of the dungeon. Naruto had to block a groan at the sudden influx of natural light.

The father and son pair went through the babbling crowd, the little dogs on their trail, inevitably bumping and brushing against several clients in the process, and made their way to a lounge area and fell on a comfortable couch.

"Well," said the father after a momentary pause, "I think I'll go relax in the bath". _I warn Dog._

Naruto nodded. "I think I'll have a drink before I join you, father." The boy answered in a respectful tone. _Dog in upper bath with rich clients._ _I warn Cat. Meeting point?_

"Alright but do not abuse the sake or you'll get sick,' chastised the father to whom the boy answered with an obedient nod. _Here, half an hour._

"Of course, father." _Acknowledged._

Tiger rose with a grunt and stretched before he wandered off to one of the many bathing areas the gigantic building housed. A minute after, Naruto imitated his "father", only going toward the one bar he knew Cat worked in. The disguised Haimura followed the boy with happy yips.

It took him two minutes to find the woman. He had to suppress a smile when he saw her. She was easy to spot with her peculiar purple hair and feline-like grace. It took Naruto another one to ready himself for the role he envisioned. He did not have to do much: Cat was wearing a rather risqué attire and it took a good amount of willpower of concentration to not just stare. He felt something stir in his guts.

His freshly healed wound was acting up. Definitely.

Playing the part of a rather impressionable young man wanting to look tougher than he was, he waved Cat. The kunoichi turned waitress eyed the boy with disinterest. Her eyebrow cocked up when she saw the trio of little dogs.

"What will it be, young master?"

"A bottle of sake, c-cutie."

The smile Cat sent him froze hell over. Naruto swallowed thickly but gave the woman a smile as cheeky as he could manage. The waitress snorted lightly but bowed. "Immediately, young master."

She was back a minute after with a bottle of sake and a cup, which she disposed on the table. Cat was ready to take her leave when the young boy took hold of her wrist.

"Wait, won't you drink some sake with me?" He asked with more courage in his voice than he obviously had in him.

The captured kunoichi was ready to yank her hand away from the brash youth when she felt his finger caress the palm of her hand, tracing the kanji for "fire". Her eyes widened minutely and she glanced at the boy intently. Her eyes shifted to the trio of dogs and widened in apparent recognition before they settled back on the boy with a mute question.

She saw unmistakable blue eyes wink at her behind the blush before they turned back to brown, as she felt her palm vibrate with the tremor of a tapped message. _We get out_. _Stay alert_.

Cat smiled demurely. "If it can please young master, it would be an honour."

Waitresses in Yubaba's establishment were encouraged to favour customers who looked like they were ready to spend money, earning a generous cut proportional to the amount of ryo they had made the clients spill. Everything was fair game, even sex if the girl felt like it.

_How? _The woman snuggled close to the disguised Naruto, caressing his hand with a message of her own.

"Pour me a drink, alright?" The boy demanded, allowing a daring hand to lay on Cat's thigh. _Diversion_. _You'll know._

"Of course, young master." _Acknowledged. Don't push it_.

Naruto could not help it and blushed furiously. _For cover_. He signed, doing his best to repress his embarrassment. He was surprised when Cat emitted a sound, in-between a snort and a giggle. The boy glared at his teammate. _Not fun_. The woman took the cup of sake from his hand and rose it to Naruto's lips, a devious smile on her face.

The boy gulped. Damned wound.

* * *

Naruto-clone inhaled the content of his plate. He was in a small room close to the sealing site, still surrounded by ninjas and watched by Haku. The replica did not really understand why they were bothering still with the slow pace they were imposing. He knew he had been dangled as bait, he knew they had captured someone, so why weren't they asking to work faster.

Did they think they could lull his vigilance to sleep, maybe?

"So, Haku-san, how did you end here?" Naruto-clone asked, eyeing his principal guard.

The older boy looked at the blond. "Here?"

The blond gestured around him. "You know, working for Yubaba."

"Yubaba-sama." Haku corrected automatically.

"Huh huh," denied the clone with a shake of his head. "Not for me, no."

The green-haired boy frowned and sighed. They had had this discussion already. He did not blame his prisoner. He was here against his will and forced into a job under the threat of having his comrades killed. "Why does that interest you?"

The blond shrugged. "I'm mainly making conversation. I'm a bit curious though. Was it a choice? A debt?"

Haku's eyes tightened slightly. "It's my home."

Naruto-clone smiled good-naturedly. "So a refuge."

The passing expression of surprise he saw flashing on Haku's face changed Naruto's smile into a grin. "Ninjas are trained to read people. One good way to avoid being read is to actually be honest, at least a little."

Haku cocked an eyebrow. "So you're truly a seal-obsessed, ramen-addicted chatterbox?"

"Sure," said the boy while shrugging. "It's not like it says a lot about me as a ninja so it's all good."

"We know you're an Uzumaki," remarked Haku. "That means extensive chakra levels and a possible ninjutsu specialist."

"Yep but it's not me who clued you in. You don't know my actual proficiency, what my favoured element is, and so on…"

"You don't deny you're a ninjutsu specialist." The green-haired boy pointed.

"Why would I? If you're wrong, it disinforms you even more, if you're right, you don't have much anyway."

"Alright. What can you deduce from me being here?" Haku asked with an easy smile.

Naruto-clone chewed for a few seconds on his lunch before swallowing his mouthful. "Well, I'd say you took refuge here, fleeing something or someone, as your reluctance to give a straight answer could indicate. The men obey you despite your appearance. You're masquerading as a teenager or you're very talented, either way, you're quite powerful. You're somehow a key part of the Bathhouse defence, valued enough that your failure to keep the veil intact did not result in your death. I'd say you're genuine though. Yubaba did something for you and you appreciate her for that, enough to pledge allegiance."

Haku eyed the blond boy impassively as Naruto scratched the back of his scalp.

"See, even being completely blank betray you and confirm parts of what I just say. If I was wrong, you'd be scoffing, making faces, something. Problem is, I can't say what was right and what was wrong."

Haku reclined against his chair and let a sigh escape him. "Is that a game to you?"

Naruto scratched the back of his head again and chuckled. "Hehe, it's the only way for me to do things right, -ttebayo. I was kinda bad at school 'cause it was all so serious and dry and boring. If I can see something like a game, I do much better."

"Can I try it then?"

Naruto shrugged and offered Haku a smile. "Sure." He said, finishing his dish and leaning back into his seat.

Haku smiled. "You're the most well-mannered prisoner I've ever seen. Which mean you've given up on escaping, you're waiting on back-up, or you've already an escape plan you believe solid enough for it to work."

Naruto grinned and shook his head up and down. "Yup, yup."

"Given how cheerful you are, I'd say it's one of the last two."

The blond boy shrugged.

"You value your teammate a lot, hence why you accepted to work for us when Yubaba-sama threatened them. They are also the reason why you won't get out of here without all of them."

Naruto nodded.

"You think of yourself as clever. Cleverer than all of us. So clever that you did not think I could play the game too. So clever that you did not think we could prepare a trap of our own." Haku's smile turned frosty just as Naruto's congealed. "I wonder if the two ladies working in the Bathhouse right now are truly your teammates?"

Naruto-clone paled for a second.

"You think me stupid," continued Haku, "but I know full well your purplette teammate was seducing one of my captains. I might have fed him false intel."

Naruto now had a big frown marring his features. "That'd be embarrassing. Just as embarrassing if I had transformed the Veil in a giant detonator array, don't you think?"

Haku stilled and cocked an eyebrow prudently. Behind them, all seven of his men were stopped frozen. "How would that work?"

"Well, see, the Veil is fine already. I fixed it at the end of last week. Now, -and it's hypothetical alright?- what if I had modified it so that, the second you connect to it, it sets off a few hundred high powered explosive tags I disseminated in the Bathhouse in addition to liquefying your brain?"

Haku snorted. "And how would you have even done that? You've been under watch twenty-four seven."

"What if -hypothetically, of course- I wasn't? You don't know much about my ninjutsu after all, right? You don't know much about my capacities as a ninja. So, hypothetically, where would that leave us?"

"A stand-off."

Naruto nodded, arms crossed in front of his chest, eyes closed in a picture of certitude. "Yup, yup. How do you propose we get out of it?"

"You're bluffing anyway. Your teammates would die."

"I think two-third of the Bathhouse would die actually. I don't have my demolition brevet so it's a rough estimation. I made sure Yubaba's grandson's death would be especially painful. Lots of smoke, fire, and so on."

Haku's eyes tightened again. "You Konoha ninjas have no honour. You'd threaten a babe?"

Naruto sighed and lowered his gaze. "We thought the Bathhouse was neutral ground. We were minding our own business and suddenly we're assaulted, you take us, and you throw us in behind bars, forcing me to solve your problems as you threaten my comrades. Who is speaking of honour?"

That silenced Haku, reminding him of those same words he had spoken to his mistress. The boy sighed. "Your business is Otogakure, correct?"

Naruto shrugged. "Can we play our cards frankly now? I'm kinda new at this and it tires me real quick."

Haku nodded curtly.

"I have no idea why you played hardball but you don't threaten Konoha ninjas without consequences," Naruto explained frankly. "We could have negotiated this long ago and the atmosphere would have been way more relaxed."

"We needed a seal-master for the Veil."

The blond's eyebrow rose in his hairline. "And you didn't ask… Because… Huh?"

"Yubaba-sama felt like she had nothing to negotiate with and did not want to be indebted to Konoha."

Naruto could understand that. Having relied mainly on himself for most of his life, owning something to someone was not a notion he was very comfortable with. He was fine feeling indebted to the Sarutobi clan or to the Ichiraku little family but it was precisely because they were just that: family.

The blond boy racked his brain for a minute before his eyes widened. "Why didn't we think of it?" Naruto slapped himself flush in the face. "We didn't have headbands. We weren't Konoha ninjas, not officially. Yubaba could have paid me as a private contractor."

Haku eyed the boy dumbly for a minute before he, too, slapped himself in the face. How had Yubaba-sama not seen that two weeks ago? Had she been that obsessed that she hadn't considered the obvious? Haku sighed. He respected the old lady immensely, it did not mean she was incapable of doing mistakes. It was when the true reason hit and soured his mood.

Yubaba-sama absolutely did not want the secret of the Veil to get out. The blond was slated for death. Yubaba-sama did not make mistakes like that.

"Did I nearly vaporize a few hundred people because we had a misunderstanding?" Naruto asked, his voice perfectly neutral, his question interrupting Haku's line of thoughts.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves. As much as I'd like for it to be a solution, I don't know if Yubaba-sama would accept." Haku stalled, one hand raised in front of him in a stopping gesture. How was he going to trick the blond into thinking they would accept? If he had trapped the whole Bathhouse, they had to negotiate anyway. He eyed the blond boy carefully.

Naruto returned Haku's glance. Something was grating at the limits of his mind, an uneasy feeling that made him queasy. It should have been the perfect solution and suddenly it was not. The older boy was too cautious. Naruto was missing something. He started playing and discarding various possibilities.

It dawned on him. The Veil was Yubaba's secret defence. They would not take the risk of him revealing it to the world. Naruto kept his face carefully neutral. He had to find Cat and Dog, the real ones, and get out of here. He knew just how to do that.

"So, hum. How about I deactivate the trap on the Veil and that's a bonus to help you convince Yubaba we don't need to fight? I mean, I fix the sealing array and we coordinate our efforts for Oto. Sounds good, no?"

Haku eyed him for a full minute before he nodded and smiled. A perfect smile, one the moved the corner of the boy's eyes just enough to look genuine. "Let's do that. Now?"

Naruto nodded. "I'm full."

Haku rose from his seat and Naruto followed him and soon, seven guards were surrounding them. They travelled through a few corridors before they were back in front of the armoured door of the sealing chamber. The reinforced panels were quickly opened and Haku followed Naruto as the blond boy positioned himself in front of the synchronization seal, the one that allowed a sensor to merge his consciousness with the Veil.

Dog and Naruto had discovered in Rice Country that the boy had sensory abilities. While he had not trained extensively with them, the ANBU initiate had been given pointers. Naruto-clone took a deep breath. He would have a few seconds top before his trap would fry his own brain and dispel him.

He hoped it would be enough. Kneeling, the boy pressed his right hand against the seal as his left sped through three hand seals.

Haku and his guards were blasted off their feet by a violent, howling gale. Before they could regain their bearing, the blond boy was already synced with the array, having by-passed the detonation order, and focused on a mental image of his teammate, willing for their presence to be revealed to him.

The clone suddenly dispelled, killed by the brain-frying trap the original had implemented.

* * *

Naruto's eyes widened suddenly at the sudden inrush of memories. He nearly choked on the tea he was sipping. Beside him, Tiger noticed the tenseness of his subordinate. The two men were in a little, private basin of hot water, one of the higher-end booths people could rent in the Bathhouse.

"What is it?"

Naruto took a deep breath and centred himself. "We have been played. The women we contacted are plants. We have maybe a few minutes before we are attacked."

Tiger hummed. "Any idea where our teammates are?"

Naruto grimaced. "Deep down. We need to go back inside the Rock. Also, they are not going after the Oto spy today. It was a bait since the beginning. I don't get it."

"They pushed us to overconfidence and trapped us. Powerful psychological method to break all will to escape."

Tiger explained before he swore in a tone Naruto would call good-natured if the situation was not so incredibly spinning out of control. Plans did not resist reality. The boy's eyes hardened. It did not matter. He had two teammates who were waiting to be freed.

There was nothing but the family.

Both men rose from the water and dried themselves before hurrying to the changing room, a simple towel around their waist. Both rolled backwards when a hail of kunai greeted them.

"Katon Fuuton combination," ordered Tiger tersely.

Naruto's eyes widened at the order. When enemies started pouring in the bath his hesitation was forgotten. His chakra pulsed once and he sped through hand signs. He was almost too late. The Katon: Great Fireball of his sergeant already blooming like a deadly flower, evaporating the already hot water of the onsen.

The rush of wind chakra impacted the fire jutsu in its core, the energies merging to create something more than the sum of their physical properties. Naruto and Tiger let themselves sink under the water as hell was suddenly unchained above the surface. Muffled by the water, the could still hear the screams of humans being calcined to their bones.

Most of the water instantly boiled and Tiger had to create a protective layer of suiton chakra around them. Twenty seconds later, they emerged to a sight of complete waste.

Their attack had torn through everything, leaving nothing but ashes in its path. The charred remains of their assailants were smoking, exhaling a disgusting smell of burnt flesh. Naruto counted three corpses. A fourth man was still alive in the back of the eviscerated changing room, half of his body cooked to a crisp.

Naruto had to exert the entirety of his willpower to resist the urge to retch at the smell.

"Our clothes are ruined now. A shame" deadpanned Tiger next to him. Naruto eyed the hole they had pierced through the wall. A rumour of panic could already be heard. He saw two customers on the ground, cradling whatever injuries the explosion had caused. There were pieces of wood and shrapnel strewn in the hall. "Operation Blast is a go."

Naruto's eyes widened in horror. "Sergeant, if I detonate, we'll kill half the people here. They are innocent!" The blond protested immediately. Operation Blast was supposed to be a bluff, a mean of forceful negotiation, a massive hostage situation in case anything turned sour. The dispositive was never supposed to be used. He had never dreamed he would ever detonate the countless explosive tags his clones had hidden through the massive building. They were supposed to use his Mayhem traps: firework, a few low powered explosive tags, more fear than real damage.

"This will give us the necessary distraction to save our comrades," Tiger retorted with a cold, determined voice. He turned toward the boy and pinned him with hard, fiery eyes. "There is nothing but the village and the family, Maru."

Naruto recoiled, shaking his head, horror nestling in his chest. He had justified killing the enemy ninjas in the same way. Their objective was actively going against his, they threatened his teammates, it was fair. They were shinobi, their life was forfeit since the beginning.

He could not slaughter a crowd of civilians entirely unrelated to their business.

"Maru." The cutting tone of his officer brought Naruto back to the present. Time seemed to crystalized in one terrible second. The boy felt his heart simultaneously tear and go cold at the man's next words.

"This is an order."

"Please," he pleaded in a whisper. "Taicho, please." Men, women, children, enjoying the Bathhouse, who had no idea of the silent conflict that was taking place right now, who had nothing to do with anything.

"There is no time for arguing. Detonate. The. Charges."

The world buzzed and blurred for Naruto, reducing itself to the eyes of his captain and his order echoing in his ears. It was an order. He did not have any choice. A pit opened in his stomach, bottomless and dark. He was not making the choice, he was following a command, he did not want it, he could not avoid it.

It was that or he would endanger Dog and Cat. He would doom members of his family, people precious to him. He would be outed from ANBU, never given his proper mask, condemned for insubordination, shamed for abandoning his comrades. Never accepted. Fear gripped his heart. Never accepted.

_Us_ and _Them_.

Naruto folded his left hand in the tiger seal and focused on the minute traces of his chakra dispersed in the Bathhouse. At the tip of his fingers, within the coiled tenketsu of his good hand, so much was hanging that it felt impossibly heavy to move them. His teammates. The rest.

"They are here! Get them!" Someone screamed. One of Yubaba's henchmen surmised the blond.

His throat felt dry and he knew there were tears streaming down his cheeks but it felt so distant, so unreal. He was just obeying an order, he did not have the choice, he was not making a decision, he was not slaughtering civilians for his benefit.

A raw, animalistic roar of fright and fury tore through his throat as his chakra flared. Suddenly, it was like the blond had summoned Hell on Earth.

* * *

**AN: I was tempted to call this chapter "pain in the ass" because that is exactly what it was. I kept rewriting, discarding, erasing. I think this is as close to where I want it to be as I'll ever get.**

**It was planned since the beginning that this mission would spiral out in a mess. The problem is, I think failure is way harder to write than success.**

**Leave a review? I'm famished.**


	21. Chapter 21 Dark arts

Sum: Naruto, Dog, Cat and Tiger have been sent to Yugakure to get intelligence on Otokagure. They have been captured by a third party, "the Bathhouse" led by the mysterious Yubaba and her right-hand Haku. Naruto escapes, frees Tiger but the situation turns sour when Cat and Dog are revealed to be held hostages deeper in the Bathhouse.

Naruto receives the order from Tiger to detonate the bombs he has planted as their last recourse in order to create enough confusion for the team to escape.

* * *

Ash and cinders, that was all he could taste. The scent of iron weighed heavily on his nose. The screams of the wounded echoed in his ears along with the desperate pleas of those already crying for their deads.

Under a torn beam, a hand, twitching, so small, too small, was covered in blood, so much, too much. Naruto's eyes closed shut as an explosion blew dust and grime at his face. The horror of his action was grating at his mind, like a dark beast lurking just outside the frontier of his psyche, waiting to pounce on the smallest weakness.

The blond willed himself to sprint. He could feel Tiger following him, the Haimura were on his heels. He knew where to go. He focused on that. Nothing else mattered. There was nothing but the family. Now that he had damned his soul and demanded an exorbitant price to the people around him, he had to save them. He must, the rest was inconsequential, the die already cast.

The two naked men ran through the decomposing building, a surreal sight completely ignored by the screaming mass. At one point, they stole pants to people who had no use for them anymore. The Bathhouse was crumbling in a methodical pattern -Naruto had lied, the Recluses had taught him how best to demolish anything- catching fire in a slow yet inexorable way.

It had been so easy to rig the building when each main beam was carved out the trunk of a chakra tree. When each shouji was made not with washi but thinner, finer, chakra paper. Priceless items, blatant luxury, obvious riches. Bombs waiting to be sealed if one knew the trick to it.

Naruto knew.

The two men kept running, finding their way back inside the Rock. Their weapons had not been discovered. Chokuto in hand, they went deeper still, back in the maze of the underground level. Darkness engulfed the group, five shadows concealed by obscurity, three armed with fangs and two with razor-sharp steel.

The Rock was shuddering, the echoes of violent tremors shaking the solid stone. Naruto allowed none of it to disturb his focus. He did not dare think of anything else but the pale, ghostly presences of his two missing companions. Any other thought was to be banned from his mind, erased. A ninja could not afford for their emotions to take control.

"I'm a ninja now." Nothing but the family mattered.

He was a ninja now. His feeling did not matter. He did not matter.

The blond froze in front of a reinforced door. His laboured breathing sounded like thunder in his ears. He could not hear when Tiger spoke. The frenzied beating of his heart pulsed in his temples, making him blind. It hammered in his throat, making him choke. Something shifted in front of him. A shadow. Something dripped above him. Blood.

Naruto's eyes widened. His shaking hands were covered in blood. He had not even noticed. Had the flames painted everything so red that he had not seen it? The lock of the door clicked open. Who was the shadow in front of him? Panic rose in Naruto's chest. Why was he opening the door? Fear gripped his heart.

Blood seeped from the frame, the rivulets turning into a wave when the door creaked ajar, crashing against the walls of the corridor. A scream, raw from horror, fought to escape him. He was going to drown in the lifeblood of those he had slaughtered.

A fitting end for a ninja.

Pain exploded in his back and he fell to his knee, his breath taken away. He inhaled raggedly and found something viscous was keeping him from properly taking in the air he desperately needed. The blood around him had vanished. He coughed and spat blood of his own.

A bark reached his ears, an order. Something, someone, fell flat next to him and pressed his head down. Stone all around him groaned before exploding with a grinding war-cry. Countless projectiles, little yet angry, bit into his legs and bottom.

A soothing feeling lessened the pain in his back. The air around him suddenly dried up as he was desperately gasping for it. Droplets of water splashed his face. Rock groaned again but this time, something else roared in response. Cries of despair echoed for a second before they were drowned by a mighty force.

"Maru, calm down," a voice ordered, punctuating the request with a slap to his face. He knew the voice of course.

"Dog," he rattled, his breath short and painful.

"You were caught in a genjutsu, you have a pierced lung, I'm fixing you, spare your breathing."

The clang of steel came to him, along with the wet sounds of flesh being cut through, the whistle of blood escaping its confines, and the wailing moans of the dying. The cave was still shaking, chakra breathing life into stone, morphing the hallway into the merciless jaw of a monster.

Suddenly, breathing became easier and a firm hand grabbed his shoulder and forced him on his feet. Cat was demonstrating just why she was a kenjutsu instructor, the Dance of the Moon gifting her blade with a preternatural grace as it delivered death to the enemies.

Tiger was crouched on a wall, defying gravity casually as he continually weaved through hand signs, moulding the rock and earth around them into deadly weapons to do his bidding. Seeing Naruto was standing, the man barked.

"Katon Fuuton combination."

Naruto blinked; his hand was already weaving through the necessary signs. Not a second later, his Great Breakthrough merged once again with Tiger's Great Fireball, leaving him completely out of breath. The flames spilt forth like some sort of liquid, the gust of wind carrying them in a geyser. Naruto was blown back by an unexpected backward blast but someone caught his fall.

"The tunnel was too narrow," supplied a part of his brain.

The boy shook the cobwebs out of his head and focused ahead. Fire was coating the shattered walls, corpses were burning, exhaling an acrid smell. Naruto breathed out in relief.

Except suddenly, they were not corpses anymore. With eyes wide with disbelief, Naruto saw the charred remains of a man stand up. The blond pulsed his chakra, one, twice, thrice. Nothing worked and, one after the other, all seven fallen ninjas rose, their eyes shining a bright white under the strange mark carved in their forehead.

A triangle trapped in a circle.

His breath taken away by the impossible sight, he looked as the bodies healed. They were familiar to him. He knew the faces which were emerging from the ashes. They were the seven guards who always accompanied Haku.

"Flames almighty," whispered someone to his right.

"You have no honour," croaked one cadaver in a taunting tone.

"You killed innocents," answered another.

"It is time you die," roared a third, who lunged with impossible speed.

Steel arched through the air and the man's head fell. It turned to ashes before touching the ground and the cinder gathered around the body, the head slowly reforming.

"Kill! Kill!" A corpse roared.

"Retreat," Tiger ordered curtly in response.

The four ANBU and the three dogs fled, choosing each turn at random, privileging speed over directions. Soon, they were lost in the maze but the undying men were far behind.

"What," puffed Dog, "the fuck," she exhaled breathlessly, "was that?" She asked, her voice cracking in hysteria in the end.

Only silence answered her, her companions too busy catching their shaken breath.

"Don't know don't care. We need to escape from here," whispered Tiger in his business monotone. "Can the Haimura find the way out?"

Before anyone could answer, the sound of feet rising and falling reached their ears. "Kill! Kill!"

Dog choked. "How did they find us so fast!?"

"Run!" Tiger answered.

The following minutes were spent like this, the ANBU darting to and fro, hoping to lose their tail only for one of the undying enemy to jump them, allowing them no moment of rest.

"They are corralling us," noted Tiger after twenty minutes of the slowly exhausting carousel.

"Where to?" Cat asked, cutting through an arm and piercing a throat that did not bleed.

"No idea but we're going deep."

The strange chase continued, the ANBU forced to flee through forgotten pathways and caves until they reached a vast opening. The air, which had been stale and dusty, suddenly cleared up. A lone ray of light bathed the centre of the large room, spilling from a small opening in the high ceiling.

A silhouette, unmoving and solemn, was standing on the dais built in the middle. There was a little altar in front of the person.

"It is so kind of you to be here," greeted the shadow in a pleasant voice.

"Haku," breathed Naruto in recognition.

"Indeed."

Suddenly, a series of loud noises echoed in the room, heavy objects impacting the ground. All around them, the four ANBU could see human-sized boxes opening, their insides glowing a pale blue, billowing fumes of frost escaping them like the breath of some mythical creature. Inside were corpses.

"Oh no," murmured Dog, her instincts blaring in high alert.

On cue, all cadavers suddenly opened their eyes, the same inverted triangle glowing white in the circle carved in their forehead.

"It is time for you to pay for the crimes you committed. The price will be a death-time of servitude."

"Attack the boy!" Tiger bellowed before sending a lance of water toward the immobile, perfect target.

The dais lit up with a flash and the suiton jutsu exploded backwards against a barrier.

"Maru!"

Naruto was already on it. The potent flash of light had been enough for him to identify the fuinjutsu protecting the platform Haku was standing on. It had also illuminated the older boy, revealing his skin to be jet black with white bones seemingly painted on top while his hair had taken a strange silvery hue.

With a half cross of his hand, the boy flexed his chakra. A massive amount of it, enough that he glowed blue for a second. A hundred blonds suddenly surrounded the four ANBU and the trio of war hounds.

"Kill!" Haku roared. Like one man, the mummies rushed forth. The shadow clones were waiting, their eyes hardened and grim, feet planted firmly on the ground, blade singing with wind chakra.

Naruto paid no mind to the charge of the undead. His own orbs were riveted on the barrier fuinjutsu erected between him and Haku. The older boy -man? Demon?- was key to stop the unkillable ninja. The one to kill to protect his teammates.

Something within him tried to care. To protest. The boy did not allow it. He forcefully wired his brain in "fuinjutsu mode".

The obstacle was fairly simple; a five pillars fortress sealed the access to the dais, offering absolute protection to one single person standing inside. Fuinjutsu was not magic, however, and any fortress had door to allow entrance. Such were the laws of the world. The problem, though, was that Naruto had neither ink or brush to paint his access.

The blond found himself stumped for a second before the solution presented itself to his mind. Taking a kunai with his left hand, Naruto stabbed through his right. He winced for a second before weaving through hand signs.

His left hand glowing green, he wrenched the knife out of his palm and splattered the barrier with his own blood.

"The great castle opens its door: fuin, kai!" He exclaimed through gritted teeth.

The protective fuinjutsu rung like a gong before it shimmered and disappeared.

Naruto lept backwards; Haku was already on him, trying to skewer him with an elongated spike.

"Damn you and your Uzumaki blood!" The necromancer roared. "We should have killed you sooner!"

The blond boy only nodded, ducking under another swipe. "You should have."

Naruto weaved in and out, avoiding each strike Haku attempted against him. The older boy was not very fast, he did not appear very strong, and he appeared to have no martial arts, simply swinging wildly.

He had the ability to raise the dead, that alone made him dangerous, Naruto supposed but he himself had an army of replicas at his command. The blond boy was definitely the better ninja. He proved it by swinging his chokuto down a tight, lightning-fast arch, severing an arm instantly.

The member turned to dust and reformed on the stump almost immediately and Naruto swore.

Haku did not need strength, speed, or martial arts. Who would when they were immortal? The blond boy rolled under a wide swipe, the edge of his chokuto biting into Haku's legs, keeping him from following Naruto.

The young initiate took stock of the situation. They were surrounded by a host of zombies that was slowly thinning the ranks of his shadow clones while refusing to go down themselves. The memories of his destroyed replicas were coming to hit him like relentless waves. He was seeing faces: here an old man, there a young teen, a woman with fascinating amethyst eyes, and so many more.

His keen hearing could pick Tiger's ragged breath, the blade of Cat did not sing as fast anymore, and Dog's growls betrayed her slow mounting exhaustion. His blue eyes went up, toward the aperture from which light was spilling forth. It was high up, carved in the ceiling. Reaching it would require a lot of chakra and very precise throw. He set his orbs back on Haku, who was advancing towards him again.

"What is happening, Naruto? You realized you cannot escape?" The boy asked, a crooked grin deforming his visage.

The blond huffed and simply shifted stance, his eyes narrowed. Haku lunged; the blond allowed the spike to slide along his chokuto as he stepped forth. The blade severed the older boy's head from his body. It fell on the floor before the body followed suit. Something tinkled against the smooth, stone pavement.

Naruto's attention shifted to whatever Haku -whose head was already reforming- had lost. It took the blond a second before he could see the black medallion: a downward triangle caged in a circle. He was readying himself for his next assault when he saw the living corpse was searching for it.

Naruto did not try to understand. His chokuto cut the hand at the wrist and the boy kicked the medal out of Haku's reach. He jumped away, a spike nicked his leg. He breathed in and waited for Haku to rise.

The older boy seemed to hesitate. Naruto frowned; each time Haku had used whatever curse power allowed him to escape death, he had attacked him head-on immediately. The Yugakure necromancer shifted to the side, apparently unwilling to attack.

Once again, the blond ignored the "why". He flickered to the medallion just as Haku lunged for it and speared it with his sword.

Naruto was knocked back by a powerful blow. The world swung around him for a second before he got on his feet, his left hand clutching the handle of his shattered chokuto. The blond threw the blade away and willed his eyes to focus on Haku. The older boy had donned the medallion again and was confidently striding towards him, ready to attack.

That was at this moment the initiate saw it. Whatever his sword strike had done, it had revealed something. He could see the symbol for what it truly was.

A seal. Wrong, twisted, cruel but a seal nonetheless, with three prongs that spelt a poem of evil design. _Jashin_. His blue eyes widened minutely in uncomprehending horror before his mind instantly forced the feeling down and acknowledged the solution.

He would possibly not survive it but it was a cost he was willing to pay. He did not have time to unravel the fuinjutsu worn by Haku. So, Naruto had to force its release. Forcing a seal open, however, had a price. As a rule of thumb, an expensive one.

A cry of alarm caught Naruto's attention and he turned his head to see Dog falling to the hands of the undead, not dead but taken prisoner. Tiger was trembling from exhaustion, surrounded by Cat and what was left of his clones keeping the tides at bay.

The price was a death of servitude. The blond could not allow that to happen. Not to his family.

Naruto shifted, escaping the spike aimed for his torso, letting it pierce his right shoulder instead. Haku's victorious grin was momentarily erased by a Wind Bullet that obliterated the bottom of his head. It quickly reformed but this time, it was horror that painted itself on the older boy's visage.

Naruto raised a blood-soaked kunai high, his left hand gripping the handle with all his might, the tip of the steel knife shining so bright it seemed transparent.

"Uzumaki ryuu: one pronged evil release: fuin kai!"

The kunai crashed on the pendant and the world fractured.

A hundred souls screamed as one as they escaped their prison. Naruto felt like his mind had been placed under a massive bell. Pain. Despair. Unrelenting, a hundred furious ghosts wailed through the valleys of his psyche.

The blond wobbled and entrenched his very self behind walls of steel, gathering the strands of his mind back together. It felt like being stared at by the Kyuubi, except less violent. The ghosts were angry, the ghosts were in pain, but all their fury could not compare to the sheer presence of the Fox. Slowly, Naruto forced them out of his mind.

He knew they would haunt him but he would be damned before they broke him. His left hand burned but he did not let off the pressure. Suddenly, the sound of glass shattering reached his ears and a presence crashed against his mind.

From beyond his defences, he peered at the form of Haku. The boy was difform, an ugly caricature of the attractive young man he had been. His eyes were protruding and bleeding, his skin had the pallor of death with a greenish tint, blight was surrounding him. With a howl, the wraith charged at Naruto who mentally braced himself.

It was a silent, immobile, yet very real battle of minds that raged forth, wounding the flesh of both opponents as a result. Again and again, Haku crashed against the edge of Naruto's psyche and again and again, Naruto fought him back.

Until suddenly, there was nothing.

Naruto opened his eyes slowly. Before him, Haku was nothing more than ashes that a breeze was dissipating. Carefully, he turned his head around and saw that the undead had been returned to dirt. With a sigh, he allowed his legs to fail him and fell on the ground in a heap.

"What was that?" Dog asked in a feeble voice.

"Our cue to get out," answered Tiger in an uncharacteristically tired voice. The officer had not enough energy left to force his monotone.

"How are we gonna do that?" asked Cat, mechanically wiping her chokuto with trembling hands.

The Haimura trio growled in concert and one dog tapped its paw in a rhythmic manner on the ground. Dog smiled. "They'll get us out."

"I'm taking Maru," offered Cat. The two operatives nodded gratefully.

* * *

Naruto awoke slowly, gingerly moving a body that did not seem to belong to him given how heavy and numb it was. He opened his mouth to call for help and gargled instead. His eyes focused on the figure of Dog.

There was a flash of panic as he envisioned being stuck somewhere with the Inuzuka for a week _again_. Relief flooded him when he heard Tiger's voice.

"That's kinda mean you know." Dog said good-naturedly.

Naruto felt himself go red with embarrassment. His fear must have been displayed for all to see on his face for Dog to guess what he had been thinking. The girl gave the boy something to drink and Naruto felt some fresh water soothe his throat. He played a bit with the last gulp, appreciating the simple pleasure of life.

"I'm not paid for being nice," answered Naruto eventually.

Hana pouted. "You have become cheeky. It's not because you probably saved us from a fate worse than death that you get to be cheeky."

Naruto frowned. "What do you mean, probably? I totally did."

"You were the one whose impatience kickstarted the entire situation, Maru. I won't deny you did well. I won't deny you also did bad." Tiger intervened his voice back to its usual, tight leashed control. "What have we learned?"

Naruto had the decency to look guilty when he muttered his answer. "I won't ever get impatient again."

"Precisely. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. It applies to everything. Keep that in mind and maybe you won't turn a mission into a fubar situation again in the near future," chastised Tiger in the cutting version of his monotone.

The blond could only sag dejectedly.

"Thanks for saving us from the freak," added the sergeant much more sweetly, for him at least.

Naruto jerked his head up and opened his eyes wide. Tiger did not talk sweetly. Tiger did not _do _sweet, at all. The boy felt tears of relief prickle the corner of his eyes as each member of his team gave him a grateful nod.

"Anything for the family," he answered with a small smile that suddenly seemed to lit up his face from genuine happiness.

"Anything," confirmed Tiger. "Now that you're awake, we can make a point on the situation. The mission objective has been failed as of now. We have no concrete information on Otogakure's activities. We already lost two weeks which means another team has been dispatched and hopefully had more luck than us. Or not. Failure is not a part of our vocabulary but there is little sense in continuing blind like this and we need to heal ourselves. We'll regroup before deciding what we do."

"Very well," answered Cat and Dog.

Naruto went to nod but suddenly, pain exploded at the front of his head, as if his forehead had been cleaved open. The boy groaned and held a hand to his head. A second later, a soothing sensation made him relax. Dog had her hands around his temples shining with healing chakra.

"What is wrong?"

"My head is killing me," croaked Naruto. Taking the time to massage his throbbing forehead, the blond eventually nodded toward his superior officer. "My apologies Tiger."

"Think nothing of it. We don't know what actually happened in the cave. Any chance you missed some kind of damage, Dog?"

The girl shook her head. "I scanned him three times, sergeant. I don't believe I missed anything."

Tiger hummed curtly. "Very well. As I was saying, we need to pursue our investigation. The only lead we have is Akira, whatever that means."

Before the man could continue, Naruto was once again holding his head, only this time he was writhing on the ground, a silent scream on his lips.

"What is happening?" Cat exclaimed in confusion, doing her best to restrain the boy's haphazard movements.

Dog was once again running a diagnostic jutsu, her face scrunched up in concentration and confusion. "I don't get it, I got nothing! His brain activity is abnormally high but there is no reason for it."

Without warning, the boy's eyes rolled back in his skull and his body tensed once before he relaxed and stilled.

Naruto was faced with someone he did not expect. In front of him was a woman sporting a pair of purple eyes and incredible, burgundy red hair. Something clicked in his mind eventually: he had seen this woman among the undying soldiers of Haku. All around him, the landscape was a deserted waste of blood, thundering clouds hanging menacingly above the both of them and allowing only a meagre, pale light to come through.

It was the place where he would fight against the ghosts haunting him, time and again, using the teachings of the Yamanaka to keep them at bay. Skulking around them like vultures were the usual ghosts and a few new additions. Somehow, however, they were kept at bay.

"What do you want?" The blond asked.

The apparition did not answer. Naruto scoffed. They never did, he was not sure what he had expected. He braced himself for the assault that was sure to come.

It did not.

Naruto looked at the form of the woman. She looked back and for a minute, nothing happened. Impatience welled inside Naruto but the stern, chastising voice of Tiger reminded him to push it down. The blond had no clue what was happening but this time was different so he settled on observing the ghost.

Her red hair was really peculiar. If Naruto was honest, she was even rather attractive.

Suddenly, the woman beckoned Naruto to follow her and without waiting for him, turned around and started walking.

"Well…" Naruto looked around at the vast nightmarish expense and shrugged. "Might as well."

The blond boy followed after the ghost.

Naruto and the lady walked for a long time. The blond was not sure time had any meaning in this mysterious shard of his unconscious mind, wherever it was located, but it did seem like hours. Jarringly, when the woman stopped, Naruto only felt like a minute had passed.

Shaking his head and refusing to even try to make sense of what he was feeling, the blond looked around. The woman had stepped sideways and in front of the two, there was the strangest thing Naruto had ever seen.

It was a chain, folded many times and forming some kind of perfectly spherical nest, coiling and slowly clicking in an ever-going sliding motion.

Naruto took a second to wrap his head around the fact it was floating in the air. It was then the woman gestured to him toward the knot of chains. The blond looked at the apparition and at the nest alternatively before his gaze scoured the landscape around.

It did not seem like he was in the seal. If his discussions with the Yamanakas he had consulted were remotely correct, this space was indeed a part of his mind. Which one, however, was the question. Naruto was conflicted. His intellect was telling him that it was dangerous yet his guts were encouraging him to just try and touch the chain.

It was his, in his mind, waiting, for him.

"You're not going to help me, are you?" Naruto glared at the woman who simply looked back with a small smile on her lips.

The blond sighed and firmed his resolve. He had walked all this way, he was not going to get cold feet right now. There was no need to be rash, however. Slowly, carefully, Naruto built around himself the mind walls he had been taught by the Yamanakas. After a few deep, focused breaths, he was satisfied and resolved to advance towards the chain.

The adamantine knot hissed as he approached and Naruto felt a weight settle on his body. Little by little, each step taken toward the mysterious nest was made heavier. Annoyance and pride flared within Naruto. He was in his own mind and by the Flames, nothing would keep him from accessing it completely.

Tooth and nail, with the sensation he was carrying an entire mountain, the boy forced himself to progress further and further. Sweat started to trickle down his face and neck, matting his hair against his forehead. His muscles strained under the impossible weight and his bones groaned in protest.

"I'm within my mind. The mind can be controlled," recited Naruto, his teeth gritted. Like a mantra, the blond kept repeating the same sentence over and over again.

He was not sure why he was still going. There was no need for him to reach whatever the chain was guarding. He could simply turn back and wake up. Yet a feeling anchored to his guts was telling him that if he failed now, he would not come back here anytime soon.

Plus, he had chosen to take on the challenge of the she-ghost. He was committed to it and he would do it. Naruto Uzumaki was not a quitter.

Suddenly, he found himself in front of the giant nest of chains. The clicking wall of adamantium parted before him, creating an entrance. The blond stepped inside.

Immediately, the weight was lifted and behind him, the chains closed, plunging the boy in near-complete darkness. The only source of light was a small object shining a bright white, the colours of the rainbow cascading around it. Naruto could not distinguish what he was seeing and simply decided to advance closer.

The inside of the nest was huge and the boy progressed slowly, more tired than he thought he was. When he reached the centre, he looked at the shiny object, perplexed.

It was an eye, of that he had no doubt. Made of something that resembled glass, there was a light inside that spilt from it. For a minute, Naruto simply marvelled at the beauty of the small, crystalline eye, wondering what its purpose was. Hesitantly, the blond extended his hand to touch it.

Everything went white and an atrocious pain burned Naruto's head as if someone was branding his forehead with a hot iron. One whispered word echoed across the vast expense of Naruto's spirit.

"Thank you."

The Uzumaki boy opened his eyes and it was like he was seeing for the first time. In front of him were his comrades, his family, yet it was as if he was truly meeting them for the first time. Something had happened to him. Everything was different and it took the blond a few second to understand what exactly had changed.

He could sense their chakra. Rolling, coiling, whirling inside their coils, feeding their body and mind and in turn created by their pulsing life force. He could taste Dog's heartbeat, its potency. He could feel her worry and relief caress his skin, prickling him harshly for one and soothingly for the second.

It was like a veil had been torn apart. The world around him was crystal clear for him to admire in all its glory. He realized he had been capable of that, fractionally, since unlocking his tenketsu for the first time but the ability had been muddled. Sealed. Protected by the adamantine chains somewhere deep within his coils, at the junction between spirit and body.

He gazed at Cat and felt her smile as if it were his own. He looked at Tiger and chuckled at the perplexity and the relief. He marvelled for a second at the strength of the Mokuton asleep within the man's chakra. There was something else hidden behind but he could not identify it.

A slap tore him from his observations.

"Naruto! Can you hear me?"

"Wha-?!" He focused his gaze back on Dog. No, she was Hana. There would be no mask able to dissimulate her from him now. He swallowed thickly, forcing himself to gather his scattered thoughts. "I'm fine."

His own voice sounded strange to his ears, hoarse, broken. Had he screamed himself mute? He remembered his forehead hurting as nothing had ever hurt before. Reflexively, he pressed his hand against his head.

"What happened?" The boy asked, confused both by the experience and the sudden influx of completely alien yet entirely familiar information he could now perceive.

"That's my question!" Hana retorted, masquerading her fear as anger.

Naruto smiled reassuringly and took the teenage girl's hand in his own before giving it a little squeeze. "I'm alright. I just…" The blond hesitated. How was he going to even begin to explain in a way that remotely made sense? "It's complicated." He warned.

"I think we have time," Tiger said, his voice carrying both order and request.

Naruto chuckled and breathed in deeply. The strange high was dissipating along with his newly found perception. "Alright but no one is allowed to call me crazy."

"That's nut!" Hana exclaimed once Naruto was done relating his spiritual experience.

His teammates knew about his ghosts, Dog better than the other two as she had been the one to send him to a psy-cell. The shrink had been convinced that the boy was experiencing PTSD and Naruto had come to accept this interpretation as well.

None of them had ever envisioned that the budding sensor abilities of the boy had anything to do with his nightmares. They had not considered the sensor abilities were anything special as well. Sensor type chakra users, while not common, were not a rarity either and it was a skill that could be trained, if arduously.

"Never heard of a sensing ability like that," noted Tiger, his voice carrying a touch of wonder.

"Yeah, it's really strange," added Dog.

The team fell silent, each trying to digest what the youngest had told them. It was Cat who spoke first.

"I knew."

Three pair of eyes fixed themselves on the woman who seemed to momentarily shrink at the intensity of the looks she was receiving before she recovered her countenance. Swallowing thickly, the woman gathered her thoughts before explaining.

"There was a woman when I was younger. I… I admired her. She was a fierce ninja but she was very kind and she'd come to the Academy once in a while, to give lessons or discuss with the student." Cat shuddered and her voice turned sorrowful. "Once, we discussed her clan and their recorded abilities and she spoke of a sensing power stronger than any other."

When Tiger cocked one eyebrow, Cat crossed her arms in front of her. "Hey, I didn't remember until Maru told us now. I was barely nine, sergeant."

"Continue."

"Well, that's about it. She called it the Zettaishingan. The Mind Eye of Kagura."

"Who was she?" Dog asked.

Naruto knew the answer before Cat responded.

"Her name was…" The woman hesitated and glanced at the blond, her eyes pleading for forgiveness. "She was Kushina Uzumaki. The Red-Hot Habanero."

Hana could only turn her head slowly toward Naruto and stare fixedly. "No way."

Tiger was silently and slowly piecing together just who exactly he had under his command. The boy was far more than a jinchuriki. He eyed the blond for a minute and shrugged.

It did not matter. Naruto was family as far as he was concerned anyway.

* * *

**AN: ÜÜÜUUURGHHH. [The sound of torment] BLERG. [Unsatisfied sigh]**

**Do with it as you will.**

**As a reminder, while I understand that some of you really love this story and that is something I deeply appreciate, sending me messages and comments about how I need to publish faster will... not make me publish faster. I mean, not particularly. I'm writing in my free time when the muse inspires me and I'm not depressed and I publish when I have the feeling I wrote something okay.**

**As for chapter 22, que sera sera.**

**Zettaishingan: well gan is eye(s), I think you got that. Shin has the meaning of supernatural/divine/spiritual power and Zettai is here for absolute/omni. So the Omnispiritual eye. Yeah?**


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